Dear Colleagues.
It is an honour to have been elected Chair, Standardisation Steering Committee (SSC), commencing my tenure on the 16th September following the ICS AGM in Tokyo. With my very enthusiastic committee members, we pledge to be quickly productive and effective.
To demonstrate this, two new working groups, to be briefly outlined below and to be accompanied by the attached scoping documents will today be advertised. In addition, five Committee members will fully prepare four new proposals including draft outlines as a prelude to later advertising for working groups.
The following two working groups are open to ICS members to join as either Chair or Member. You must state in the covering email whether you are applying to be Chair or Member (or both) and which of the two projects you wish to apply for. Please send a short CV (no more than 3 pages) with a covering statement explaining why you wish to apply for this position.
Working Group A: Terminology for Pelvic Floor Muscle Function & Dysfunction
This proposal was raised in Tokyo by key physiotherapists, and supported generally by many others. It involves key terminology in the area outlined in the title. This will be a revision of the ICS document on the same subject from 2005.
Click here to download the scoping document
Working Group B: Terminology for Male Lower Urinary Tract & Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
Following on from the 1988 and 2002 documents this report will focus on male only terminology for LUTS and Pelvic Floor Dysfunction. The experience with a female-specific core terminology document (2010) was that: (i) additional terminology in all clinical areas can be picked up; (ii) appropriate sex-specific emphasis can be placed on the more common symptoms, signs, investigations and diagnoses; (iii) follow-up sex-specific terminology documents were more easily produced. We anticipate the experience with male terminology will be no different.
Click here to download the scoping document
Involvement in terminology reports
This can be a time-challenge, one however with considerable professional satisfaction on completion, that you personally have contributed to “getting the basics right” in a particular aspect of the fields we cover. You have helped clarify understanding and standardise communication. There’s an international camaraderie with other working group members and an individual and collective expansion of knowledge by being involved.
I look forward to producing regular communications to ICS members regarding the activities of the SSC. We will be following the progress of and assisting current working groups. I take this opportunity to thank my predecessor Marcus Drake and the SSC Committee members who have worked with Marcus over the last six years for their considerable combined efforts.
Bernie Haylen
Chair, ICS Standardisation Steering Committee
Deadline for Applications: 7th November 2016
Submission of Applications: Please send a short CV (no longer than 3 pages) with a covering statement to the ICS Office: info@ics.org, copying in Bernie Haylen bernard@haylen.co
Scoping Documents
Terminology for Pelvic Floor Function and Dysfunction Scoping Document
Terminology for Male Lower Urinary Tract & Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Scoping Document