2025 – February 17th
Minutes: Board Meeting Nordic Fertility Society
| Date: | February 17th 2025 |
| Location: | Online |
| Invited: | Stina Järvholm (President), Steinunn Thorsteinsdottir (IC), Snorri Einarsson (IC), Niels Fuglede (S), Hans Ivar Hanevik (N), Hanna Savolainen-Peltonen (FI), Leif Bungum (DK), Mette Haug Stensen (N), Siri Lehtonen (SFY), Åsmund Mjøen-Vigeland (NOFAB), Mats Brännström (SSRM), Betina Povlsen (DFS) |
| Co-opt: | Astrid Helene Sydtveit (N) |
| Not Present: | Niels Fuglede (S), Hanna Savolainen-Peltonen (FI), Betina Povlsen (DFS) Mette Haug Stensen (N), Astrid Helene Sydtveit (N) |
- Chair and secretary of today’s meeting is Stina
- News from the national societies
Sweden. The annual meeting will take place in March. Mats will step down at the meeting and the new chair will join us from April. 11/9 there will be a Hot Topic meeting in Sweden about genetics within reproductive medicine.
Finland. The annual meeting will take place in March. Siri will continue as chair. There will be an Annual Congress of the European Association of Tissue and Cell Banks in Tampere 12-14/11.
Norway. Had their annual meeting in January with good attendance. Åsmund continue as chair. In Norway a revision of the legislation concerning the application on biotechnology on humans (ex. ART), is underway.
Denmark. The annual meeting will take place in March. Betina will step down at the meeting and the new chair will join us from April. Some private clinics have closed. There have been some changes in legislation on funding for ART.
Iceland. Now two clinics are present. PGT-A will become an option, paid out of own pocket. - Last minutes. Nothing to add to previous protocol.
- Financial situations. Leif has been in contact with Baker Tilly, the firm who usually make our revision. They are willing to also act as an encounter for NFS and we decide to go for this option (about 7000 DK/ year). The president (Stina) and a representative from DK (Leif) will have the responsibility and opportunity to approve payment of incoming invoices to NFS. Astrid is managing the account until it transfers to Baker Tilly. The fee for the national societies has been sent out for 2024 and 2025 by Astrid.
- Homepage. We had hope for that Baker Tilly would be able to provide us with this service as well, but unfortunately not. Steinunn will therefore act for taking this question forward to establish another solution than the present.
- Congress Iceland 2026. Snorri and Steinunn deliver the process so far. Two slots are possible at Harpa congress (e.g. one of two possible venues in Reykjavik and the best) 13-15/8 or 27-29/8. We agree that the later suggestion would be better and Stina will contact our gold sponsors and check that the date does not concur with other big events. Two congress bureaus have been giving an offer to host the congress, and one is the same that hosted the 2015 meeting. We give the task to Snorri and Steinunn to investigate these offers and recommend to the board which one they prefer. During 2025 (late spring/early fall) it would be good to have the congress theme and logo advertised and also to make a first draft of the program and which keynote speakers we would like to aim for.
- Follow-up other activities. The objectives of NFS are (§2 by-laws):
To create a forum for the exchange of information between all types of specialists and all professions involved reproductive medicine by increasing the knowledge within the social, psychological, ethical, reproductive medicine, genetic and clinical fields in order to increase the basic understanding and improve treatment of involuntary childless couples.
To participate in and encourage further development in reproductive medicine and further education of the members of the federation.
To encourage the members to increased collaboration within the Nordic countries - and within the four Nordic national reproductive medicine/fertility Societies (new).
To guide in ethical, legislative and political questions in the Nordic countries - and in the four Nordic national reproductive medicine/fertility societies (new).
To facilitate the work of the members according to the highest standard within clinical and laboratory work.
To work for cooperation with other relevant societies in the Nordic countries as well as internationally.
To work for prevention of infertility.
To invite and be responsible for arranging Nordic summer meetings with not less than 24 months ́ interval and in uneven years (second revision, Sept 2013).
To implement the objectives of NFS the board has decided to also investigate potential activities besides the bi-annual congress. At the last board meeting the followed areas was outlined:
Webinars (Mats, Hans Ivar, Stina) Possible to plan for a webinar in February/mars 2025. Mats takes the lead on this. Nothing planned so far. Suggest having a webinar late spring/early fall on andrology to promote and make context for up-coming Hot Topic meeting.
Hot topic meeting in November 2025 at Kastrup combined with an on-site board meeting. Possible subject micro-TESE. Leif and Niels take the lead on this. Planning has started up. Stina join this group and will investigate possible venues for the meeting. Should we aim for sponsoring? Whom/how?
Åsmund described the model from NOFAB in forming an online education for coordinator/secretaries at IVF-clinic. Åsmund and Stina take the lead on this. Åsmund report the start of this event in Norway.
We are in favor of that this would be a good initiative for NFS to offer but it has some practical obstacles such as; giving the course in English, different legalizations between countries, national courses already taking place for example the ABC-course in Sweden. We decided to postpone this possibility and evaluate after the Norwegian course has finished.
To announce an exchange scholarship giving clinicians the possibility to visit another clinic. Steinunn and Niels will take the lead on this and present description at next board meeting ready for publication on the homepage. Still pending.
We agreed to continue the discussion on up-coming board meetings about how to better align the focus, workload and size of the board to the objectives stated in the by-laws. - Matters arising
- - Next meeting. Will take place digital during May, Stina and Snorri will coordinate possible dates. We plan for an on-site board meeting in conjunction with a Hot Topic meeting late fall.