ICNC 2026 ยท Plenary Session
Frank Ford Award
Plenary Lecture
International Child Neurology Congress ยท 2026
Professor Jo Wilmshurst
Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital
Neuroscience Institute ยท University of Cape Town
South Africa
Plenary Talk
Empowering Child Neurology: Advancing Brain Health Through the Intersectoral Global Action Plan
About the Speaker
Professor Jo Wilmshurst is Head of Paediatric Neurology at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, University of Cape Town, South Africa. She previously served as President of the International Child Neurology Association from 2018 to 2022 and currently serves as Secretary General for the International League Against Epilepsy for the term 2025โ2029.
She is also the Director of the African Paediatric Fellowship Program, a training programme under the auspices of the University of Cape Town that aims to develop skills in paediatric disciplines among doctors from across Africa.
Professor Wilmshurst is an Associate Editor for Epilepsia and Chief Editor for the Paediatric Neurology sub-section of Frontiers in Neurology. She also serves on the editorial boards of JICNA, Epileptic Disorders, and Seizure. She has authored over 250 peer-reviewed publications.
Her clinical and research interests include rare neurological disorders such as neuromuscular diseases and neurocutaneous syndromes, as well as common high-impact diseases including epilepsy and neuroinfections.
Abstract
The World Health Assembly approved Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders (IGAP) programme is midway through the agreed-upon timeframe to meet the aspirational strategic goals. Many of the recommendations of IGAP were already underway but in potential siloes and lacking cohesion.
Our child neurology community has significant opportunities to raise the profile of brain health from the point of care through to ministerial decision-makers as a collaborative body. As child neurologists, we are a scarce resource globally. Without empowered leadership roles and viable approaches to task-sharing, the needs of our children with neurological disorders will not be met.
As care and service delivery are explored in regions previously lacking such capacity, this often reveals the greater need for care and potentially overwhelming burden of disease. Innovative approaches across the IGAP strategic goals can and should be specific to child neurology.
This talk will take the audience through the fascinating world of child neurology and demonstrate how the privileged few specialists working in the field can implement and achieve IGAPped.
About the Award
Dr. Frank R. Ford
1892 โ 1970 ยท Baltimore, Maryland
Dr. Frank Ford was born and spent nearly his entire life in Baltimore, where he established a distinguished Paediatric Neurology Service. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1915 and its medical school in 1920, subsequently completing training in psychiatry and neurology at leading institutions including Bellevue Hospital in New York.
He returned to The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1923 and served as chief of neurology from 1932 to 1958. His landmark text, Diseases of the Nervous System in Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence, first published in 1937, grew through six editions to over 1,500 pages and was translated into several foreign languagesโearning its enduring reputation as "the Bible of Paediatric Neurology."
Known among colleagues as "the judge" for his authoritative bedside acumen, Ford was revered as a great teacher, clinician, and mentor whose work cemented his international reputation long before speciality societies formally convened.
To honour Dr. Ford's lifetime dedication, the International Child Neurology Association (ICNA) has presented the Frank Ford Award since 1982. The award recognises senior investigators for their lifetime clinical and research contributions to Child Neurology and to the ICNA.
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