Farewell Editorial

I was 39 years old when Professor Heinz Kaeser, then chair of neurology in Basel and about to retire, called me to ask if I would take over the editorship of European Neurology after him. Interestingly enough, it had been one of my favorite neurological journals since 1978, when I started my training with 1 year of clinical psychiatry in Geneva. At the time, the journal had already been around for nearly 100 years, being the third oldest active neurological journal, founded as Monatsschrift für Neurologie und Psychiatrie by Carl Wernicke and Theodor Ziehen in 1897. To me, Wernicke has always been one of the most fascinating historical figures in the field, even with some form of genius (which allowed him, for example, to predict the existence of conduction aphasia and its lesion localization without having seen a single case!). Thus, the appointment as editor-in-chief was for me both prestigious and committing. Here, I am very grateful to the late Professor Henry J.M. Barnett, from London, Canada, who was at the time the world leader of clinical cerebrovascular research, and with whom I had the privilege to spend 1 year. Indeed, as chief editor of Stroke, he taught me much on the editorship work. “The war against biases” was his line, along with scientific rigor and attention to details.I am also grateful to the late Dr. Thomas Karger and his collaborators, who have been unwaveringly supportive, sometimes in uneasy situations. In fact, my first contact with the Karger company was earlier, in 1989–1990, when, along with my friend Professor Michael Hennerici, from Düsseldorf and then Mannheim, we founded the journal Cerebrovascular Diseases, in parallel with launching the European Stroke Conference.Over 3 decades later, I am particularly happy to be succeeded by Professor Laurent Tatu, a major leader in neuromuscular disease from the University of Franche-Comté, and Professor Cristina Granziera, from the University of Basel, now a rising star in neuro-immunology and imaging. Both spent significant time working with me, so that I am totally aware and confident of their competence and thrive to handle the editorship of the journal in a very balanced and complementary way.Under my guidance, European Neurology has remained a very clinical journal. In an increasingly technical medical world, where patient care – in fact the only real goal of medicine – is too often overlooked, maintaining a clinical focus is more vital than ever. Our focus has been general neurology from neuromuscular disease to cognitive dysfunction. The help of my associate editors (most recently, M. Paciaroni, H.P. Hartung, A. Bernasconi, and F. Assal), each an expert in a specific field, was here critical. We published two special issues, one for the century of the journal and one for its 125th anniversary, which were mainly devoted to progress in neurological therapies. In this field, the advances in therapy have indeed been gigantic during these years, with acute stroke management, the revolution of immunological treatment of multiple sclerosis, the introduction of new molecules for migraine, or transcranial pulse-ultrasound therapy for certain tremors and parkinsonian symptoms, to quote only a few. In 1984, with the help of Professor Franco Regli, my chief at the time, I authored a book on therapy of neurological diseases, encompassing all conditions and known treatments at the time… Nowadays, such a task would require a team of dozens of specialists.Proper assessment and subsequent help to patients with targeted management has always been my motto, including in my research activity. My academic years are over, but my commitment to patient care remains undiminished in my ongoing activity as head of the Swiss Medical Network Neurocenter. I heartedly wish that European Neurology, under its new guidance and along with its own evolution and changes, will nevertheless continue in that direction.Julien Bogousslavsky, MD, DM, PhD, FANA, FAHAEditor-in-Chief, European Neurology, 1994–2025The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.This study had no funding.

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