Electrical stimulation and hybrid technologies—the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society (IFESS) Conference 2024

The annual meeting of the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society (IFESS) was held at the University of Bath, UK, between the September 1 and 3, 2024. IFESS is a member-based not-for-profit association that has the purpose of promoting awareness, knowledge, and understanding of electrical stimulation technologies for patient benefit. Submissions to the conference were invited under the general theme of “Electrical Stimulation and Hybrid Technologies.” Specific topics invited included emerging technologies and applications; neurophysiological mechanisms of FES and motor learning; brain-computer interfacing, augmented reality, gaming, and FES; wound healing; epidural and transcutaneous spinal stimulation; stimulation of denervated muscles; end-user perspectives and quality of life; and FES technologies in clinical practice. The conference was well attended with 154 delegates attending over the 3 days. There was good international representation with submissions from authors across five continents and 16 countries. The United Kingdom was well represented with 101 authors contributing, followed by Italy (37) and Canada (22) (Figure 1). Prior to the main conference, a stimulating day of hands-on clinical and technical pre-conference workshops was held, provided by clinical, research, engineering, and industry leaders in the area. A total of 91 delegates attended the pre-conference workshops day. The workshops were popular with delegates, who provided a high level of positive feedback with an average rating of 4.9/5. The workshops entitled “Translational Electrical Stimulation for use in Neurorehabilitation – Applied Clinical Evidence” hosted by Dr. Ines Bersch-Porada, Dr. Winfried Mayr, and Dr. Thomas Schick and a further workshop entitled; “Clinical Applications of Integrated Functional Electrical Stimulation Therapies to Improve Patient Outcomes” hosted by Matt White and Kristen Hart were the two most popular workshops and were over-subscribed. A higher-than-average attendance rate for the pre-conference workshops day was attributed to the quality and breadth of content, as well as delegates being provided with the opportunity to register for the pre-conference workshops day independent from the rest of the conference (suiting those with clinical commitments). The first day of the conference was dedicated to engineering advances in electrical stimulation technologies opened by the IFESS president Simona Ferrante and the co-chairs including Prof. Ian Swain representing Bournemouth University, Dr. Ben Metcalfe from the Bath Institute for the Augmented Human, and Dr. Tamsyn Street from Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. Prof. Nick Donaldson from UCL was invited to provide his keynote entitled “Juicing up the spinal cord”: electrical stimulation and hybrid technologies. This was followed by sessions on Electrical Stimulation and Hybrid Technologies, Poster Fast Forward Session A, Electrode Technology Development, and the IFESS Announcements meeting led by Simona Ferrante. During the IFESS meeting Prof. Jane Burridge provided a pre-launch of a new book entitled: “Techniques and Technologies in Electrical Stimulation for Neuromuscular Rehabilitation” invited for publication by the Institute for Engineering and Technology (IET). The book is an international collaboration within the IFESS community bringing together a team of world class engineers from research, clinical and industry settings. The first day of the conference was closed with a special drinks reception dedicated to the retirement of Prof. Ian Swain in celebration of his research, engineering, and clinical contributions to the area. The highly popular conference dinner then followed with a 1920s themed evening event at the American Museum of Bath. Tom Doughty, renowned international lap guitar musician, opened the evening event with a beautiful solo of his own composition leaving delegates silent for the duration of his playing. Tom provided some insight into his life as a user of several different electrical stimulation technologies beginning with being one of the first participants to work with Prof. Charles Brindley and the sacral anterior root stimulator bladder control device. Mr Doughty was awarded with the Olijynk award in recognition of his participation in multiple research studies in the area of electrical stimulation technologies over the years. The second day of the conference was dedicated to using electrical stimulation technologies in clinical practice and was opened by Prof. Anand Pandyan, Dean of Faculty from Bournemouth University, who introduced the second keynote Harvey Sihota and his talk entitled: “Challenges and Enablers of Integrating Electrical Stimulation Technologies into Clinical Care.” This was followed by Poster Fast Forward Session B, and the sessions on Emerging Technologies and Mechanisms, and the Effectiveness of Technologies in Clinical Practice split into parts A and B. The conference was well supported by a range of sponsors including five bronze, three silver and two gold. Sponsors provided financial support for the event as well as attending with an excellent range of hands-on demonstrations and networking opportunities. As a result of this sponsorship, and the high number of delegates, the conference made a significant profit which will now be used to re-establish the United Kingdom and Ireland IFESS chapter and ensure that IFESS remains both well-represented and supported within the United Kingdom and Ireland. Feedback from delegates was very strong, with an overall rating for the conference of 4.76/5. Free text comments indicated that the conference was very well organized and provided a friendly and accessible experience for all delegates; there were suggestions that a hybrid attendance model would have enabled more delegates to attend and would be in-line with sustainable travel policies. During the closing ceremony the Vodovnik student award was presented to Frances Gawne from University College London for her presentation entitled: “The neurophysiological effects of transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation with and without a kHz frequency carrier in humans.” Second runner-up was awarded to Daniel Hodgekiss from the University of Birmingham for his submission entitled “Ergogenic effects of spinal cord stimulation on exercise performance following spinal cord injury.” Third runner-up was awarded to Matthew Heffernan from the University of Toronto for his work entitled: “The orthotic effect of functional electrical stimulation on reactive stepping for people with incomplete spinal cord injury.” The best poster prize was awarded to Emily McNicol for her poster entitled: “Effect of transcutaneous electrical spinal cord stimulation on upper limb motor recovery in spinal cord injury.” A selection of high-quality submissions to the conference was invited to submit a full article to a special issue to be published in Artificial Organs along with all peer-reviewed accepted short abstracts. IFESS and the local organizing team would like to thank all delegates, sponsors, and friends for help and support in delivering a vibrant and successful conference. The first author TS is employed by Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust which owns shares in Odstock Medical a medical device company which manufactures and sells electrical stimulation devices and provides clinical treatment. The employer of the first author TS is Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust which owns shares in Odstock Medical a medical device company that manufacturers and sells electrical stimulation devices and provides clinical treatment.