Link to IFSI website: Itch forum
Next (9th) World Congress on Itch meeting:
Wroclaw, Poland, October 15-17, 2017
Mission Statement
The International Society for the Study of Itch (IFSI) is a multidisciplinary international association of clinical practitioners, researchers and scientists dedicated to improving our understanding and treatment of pruritus for the benefit of suffering patients worldwide. The Society is a non-profit professional organization (registered in NC, USA). Membership is open to clinicians, researchers, scientists and other health professionals engaged in the research and treatment of itch.
Our mission is to advance itch-related research and education and to promote treatment and clinical efforts to help alleviate this debilitating symptom. Our main goal is to create an active society that will contribute to the study of Itch. IFSI also distributes recent information about pruritus research and developments by newsletters to its members, the international medical community and the public at large through various media. IFSI conducts international meetings every second year (World Congress of Itch, WCI) where researchers present the latest findings in the field. The official Journal of the IFSI is the Acta Dermato-Venereologica, where an Itch Section with IFSI members acting as section editors was established. This is the first medical Journal world-wide with an own section dedicated to publish the focussed on pruritus research. IFSI supports the publication of high quality papers in this section by covering the publication costs on request.
The Board of Directors for a period of 2 years are:
President: Earl Carstens, USA
Vice-President: Elke Weisshaar, Germany
Secretary: Toshiya Ebata, Japan
Treasurer: Alan B Fleischer, USA
Board Members:
Jacek Szepietowski, Poland
Jeffrey D. Bernhard, USA
Martin Schmelz, Germany
Ichiro Katayama, Japan
Thomas Mettang, Germany
Sonja Ständer, Germany
Kenji Takamori, Japan
Gil Yosipovitch, USA