The ABCs of neuropaediatrics

Neuropaediatrics remains at the center of our understanding of human development. As a discipline, paediatric neurology explores the complex and profound relationship between the child and the child's brain. It is also pervasive in the treatment of children presenting with acute emergencies and chronic medical complexities.

There is now a whole array of new therapies at our disposal for the benefit of these children. Previously intractable, life-limiting neuromuscular diseases like spinal muscular atrophy are becoming treatable. Antisense oligonucleotide and other personalized therapies are being used as first-line treatments in epileptology.^{1, 2} Once extremely rare and only used in exceptional cases, whole-exome sequencing is now regularly utilized, providing new diagnoses and opening up possibilities for precision therapy.³

But with these technological advances we also need to step back and make time for reflection and debate. Who pays for such costly therapies? What is the future role of the experienced neuropaediatrician in telemedicine versus in-person care? How will artificial intelligence (AI) affect our clincial work? Why do we need more and not less clinical neuropaediatric examination to ensure competence and continuity of care?⁴

In this highly complex field of new possibilities, the European Paediatric Neurology Society (EPNS) will be hosting its 2025 Annual Congress in Munich, Germany. With about 1000 abstracts submitted, we have tried to give equal space to as many aspects of paediatric neurology as possible. We will focus on acute neurology with the clinical differentiation of acute brain attack,⁵ as well as basic research and long-term care of children with complex neurological diseases. These are the ABCs of paediatric neurology, which we – together with many internationally renowned experts in the field – discuss and sometimes revise and redefine.

We want to talk to each other – face to face in Munich as well as virtually – and learn from each other. Together with the German-speaking Society for Neuropaediatrics from Austria, Switzerland and Germany (GNP), we are pleased to offer a skills lab at an EPNS Congress for the first time. We will teach and learn in small groups, exchange ideas, and acquire or deepen new knowledge for everyday clinical practice through hands-on training. To warm up, there is a pre-Congress session: ‘The Child and the Brain. Where it's all started. One day of interactive future’. Here we will have time to look at neuropaediatrics from different angles – from clinical examination to AI to philosophical aspects – and hopefully emerge with some fresh perspectives.