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Interviewer: Andreea Doria Constantinescu
Interviewee: Professor Nirmal Surya
Professor Nirmal Surya (DNB, MD, MBBS) is the Past President of the Indian Academy? of Neurology? Founder President of the Indian Federation of Neurorehabilitation, and Founder Trustee & Chairman of the Epilepsy Foundation, Mumbai, India. With over 30 years of experience, his areas of expertise include neurorehabilitation, stroke, and epilepsy.
Professor Surya has attended a large number of seminars, workshops, conferences, and symposia in the field of neurology & neurorehabilitation.
D.A.C.: Dear Professor Nirmal Surya, we are here, in Vienna, for the 12th World Congress for NeuroRehabilitation, organised by the World Federation for NeuroRehabilitation. What is your first-hand opinion of the event so far, and have you participated in any? previous editions?
N.S.: I have been associated with the WFNR and WCNR for a long time. In 1996 it was the first world congress on neurorehabilitation, and I was there and presented the poster; then, from 2006 Hong Kong onward, I had been regularly presenting, participating, actively involved. In fact, in 2018 - Mumbai, the last physical conference was organised by me; it was the most successful when more than 2,000 participants were there from 56 countries. What I gather today, after 3 years of Covid lockdown is that we can see that there is a buzz, people want to come, people are happy, they are happy to meet, and so far, at the discussions and the presentations, I found that all the halls are busy and it is all about neurotechnology, neurorehabilitation, a newer technology that people had been talking about and I think that whatever changes happened in the last three, four years, [these] have been discussed. I think this is a change which has come because, for so many years, people have been stuck in lockdown, and could not travel because of Covid; now they find it like a sort of outlet and are very happy.
D.A.C.: What is the overarching theme of the congress this year, from your point of view?
N.S.: I think the theme would be future technologies because what I gathered today from the plenary lectures and other lectures is that we are more focused...