SPOG gets a new president

Katrin Scheinemann became President of the Swiss Paediatric Oncology Group (SPOG) on 1 January 2020. Ms Scheinemann heads the Department of Paediatric Oncology-Haematology at the Cantonal Hospital in Aarau and works as a senior physician in the field of neuro-oncology at the University Children’s Hospital Basel. She is also an associate professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.

The previous President of the SPOG, Prof. Roland Ammann, MD, stepped down at the end of 2019. His successor, Katrin Scheinemann, is looking forward to the new task: “With SPOG, I would like to continue to support international clinical research for childhood and adolescent cancer, which also helps our patients in Switzerland.” Within the framework of patient-oriented cancer research, SPOG is committed to the increasingly individualised treatment of children and adolescents with cancer, in the hope of being able to treat them even more successfully than before, while at the same time reducing undesirable late effects. The greatest challenges of international clinical treatment studies are the increased regulatory requirements and the associated costs. “This is an international problem,” says Scheinemann, “which presents us with great challenges, as it leads to a massive time delay in the implementation of the latest research findings in clinical practice.”

The SPOG Board as of 1 January 2020:

President: Katrin Scheinemann, MD, Aarau/Basel

Vice-President: Nicolas Gerber, MD, Zurich

Assessors:

Prof. Marc Ansari, MD, Geneva

Prof. Maja Beck Popovic, MD, Lausanne

Heinz Hengartner, St. Gallen, MD