Did you know ASHT members are connected to the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT) by way of ASHT’s membership with IFSHT? ASHT pays $50 plus $1 per member each year to IFSHT in order to maintain membership with IFSHT. IFSHT has 44 member countries and represents about 8,500 therapists worldwide. Its mission is “to provide global networking and educational opportunities to develop and enhance the practice of hand therapy.”
At the First Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH) in the Netherlands in 1980, Doctors Raoul Tubiana and Yves Allieu from France and Dr. Georgio Brunnelli from Italy encouraged hand therapists attending meeting to form the IFSHT. IFSHT held its first International Congress in Tel Aviv, Israel in April 1989, with ASHT’s own esteemed founding member, Evelyn Mackin, as president.
As part of the mission to provide global networking and educational opportunities, IFSHT holds an international congress every three years. Plans are now underway for the 10th Triennial Congress of IFSHT, which will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct. 24-28, 2016. With this important meeting only a year away, it is now time to budget to attend the congress in the beautiful city called “the Paris of South America.” The provisional program for the congress is already posted on the IFSHT website at www.IFSHT.org.
I attended my first IFSHT Congress in 2010 when ASHT hosted the Triennial Congress in Orlando. At that meeting, I was hooked on the idea of networking with hand therapists from around the world, and the next Triennial Congress in 2013, in New Delhi, was equally inspiring to me. I hope you will join me at the 10th Triennial Congress of IFSHT in Buenos Aires in 2016!
To learn more about IFSHT, visit www.IFSHT.org, find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. We look forward to networking with you as we continue to link hand therapists from around the world in order to promote and enhance the specialty of hand therapy.