The idea of creating a federation originated on the 30.08.2006 at the "Bahnhof-Buffet" Zurich where Prof. Bassetti, Prof. Hess, Prof. Hildebrandt and Prof. Valavanis came together. After hours of discussion and bringing together different prospects the concept of the SFCNS was born.

Three years thereafter in 2009 the Swiss Federation of Clinical Neuro-Societies (SFCNS) was officially founded. So it is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2019. Starting with six members, today already 16 societies are members of the SFCNS and help to strengthen the clinical neurosciences in Switzerland.

The mission of the SFCNS is to promote collaborations and interactions between clinical neuro-societies in Switzerland in order to enhance interdisciplinary knowledge and overall impact of our disciplines at medical, scientific, public and political level.

In 2010, the very successful 1st meeting of the SFCNS took place in Basel with the main topics stroke, epilepsy and disorders of the spine & spinal cord. After Basel the SFCNS board has been very active at different levels.

First, discussions were searched for and entertained with potentially interested societies. This lead to a growth of our Federation from the six founding societies (Neurology, Neurosurgery, Neuroradiology, Neuropediatrics, Neuropathology and Clinical Neurophysiology) to the current 13 members.

Second, the Federation received the mandate from the Swiss Conference of the Cantonal ministers of Public Health (GDK) respectively from its Decision Board IV-HSM (Highly Specialized Medical Services) to define criteria and procedures to certify in Switzerland stroke centres and stroke units, centres for the treatment of epilepsy, and centres for the treatment with deep brain stimulation (DBS) of movement disorders. Three committees started their work in early summer 2012. We are optimistic that more mandates may be trusted to the SFCNS in the near future.

Third, the SFCNS was involved in co-organizing teaching and scientific events with different member societies at national as well as local level. From June 5-7, the 2nd SFCNS Congress took place in Montreux. The main topics were functional restoration, neurooncology, neurocritical care, depression, dementia and chronic pain. Each member society was given the possibility of being involved in the organizing of topics that are tailored to their specific area of interest and expertise.

The 3rd SFCNS Congress took place in Basel in 2016, september 28-30, together with the Swiss Society for Neuroscience (SSN) and other societies. The main topics were neurogenetics, sleep and epilepsy, clinical neuroscience quo vadis?, neuroimmunology and pain. One of the goals of the congress was to offer different types of events (scientific symposia, teaching courses, free communication platforms, parallel session) of general/overlapping interest for multiple disciplines.

October 23 to 25, 2019 the 4th SFCNS Congress took place in Lausanne. The main topics were “Presence hallucinations: from epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease to neuroscience robotics”, Smarter Devices, Neuroimmunology and Neuroinflammation Crosstalks, Low back pain - a global challenge, Dangerous Headache and “Brain of the Future”.

Furthermore, since 2021, the SFCNS has been a co-determining society of the FMH.

I’m looking forward to all the challenges the SFCNS will face in the future.

Prof. Dr. med. Luca Remonda
SFCNS President 2022 - 2025