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This month’s Annual Neurology Update Meeting aims to be highly relevant for specialists and generalists who manage neurological illness.
The 25th Annual Neurology Update Meeting will take place at CityNorth Hotel, Gormanston, Co Meath, on Friday 25 September 2026.
The meeting is hosted by the Irish Institute of Clinical Neuroscience (IICN), which promotes the academic clinical neurosciences in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The IICN aims to provide information on the clinical neurosciences; support members and trainees in their academic activities; promote the availability of high-standard clinical neuroscience services; advocate on behalf of patients; and collaborate with Irish neuroscientists working in other countries.
The 2026 Neurology Update Meeting will be of interest to neurologists, general physicians, and GPs. The meeting has been designed to be highly relevant for specialists and generalists who manage neurological illness. All the latest developments in diagnosis and treatment will be presented in a practical ‘What you need to know’ format, with short talks with clinical insights for the management of neurological patients.
The meeting was organised under the directorship of Dr Tudor Munteanu, Consultant Neurologist, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.
Dr Munteanu told the Medical Independent (MI) he designed the programme to be “open” and informative for “neurologists, internal medicine physicians, and GPs”.
“I picked some of the most common neurological conditions – epilepsy, migraine, Parkinsonism, and functional neurological disorder [FND] – which account for up to 60 per cent of what we see as neurological presentations… so I think general physicians will benefit from this meeting.”
The ‘open’ nature of the gathering is built into its structure. “If you look at the programme, each section is divided into three sub-talks,” Dr Munteanu told MI.
“The first talk on each condition is based on the mechanism of disease. We will be looking to get a state-of-the-art update on where our understanding of these diseases is in 2026.”
“The second part will be delivered by a neurology trainee and this will be of great benefit for the trainees as well, because they will have to think about teaching.”
The focus of these sub-talks will be on how a condition “should be addressed in general practice or in the internal medicine practice, while the patients are awaiting to see a neurologist”.
Finally, Dr Munteanu said the third sub-talk of each section will offer “the most specialist approach to managing these conditions”.
The agenda will open with a welcome and introduction from Dr Munteanu.
Dr Tudor Munteanu
Functional neurological disorder and epilepsy
The first session will focus on FND, and will be chaired by Dr Aoife Laffan, Consultant Neurologist, St James’s University Hospital, Dublin.
Dr Kara O’Connell, Consultant Psychiatrist, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, will deliver a talk titled ‘Functional neurological disorder: Pathophysiology and anatomical localisation’.
This will be followed by Dr Hongying Chen, Neurology SpR, who will discuss the diagnosis and management of FND for GPs and general physicians.
Dr Diane Gillan, Principal Clinical Neuropsychologist, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, will then examine neuropsychological interventions in FND.
The second session, chaired by Prof Norman Delanty, Consultant Neurologist, Beaumont Hospital, will turn to epilepsy.
Prof Peter Widdess-Walsh, Consultant Neurologist, Beaumont Hospital, will open the session with a talk on pathophysiological mechanisms of seizure generation in epilepsies.
Dr Emma Dolan, Epilepsy Fellow, Beaumont Hospital, will discuss the diagnosis and management of epilepsy for GPs and general physicians.
Dr Dolan will be followed by Dr Michael Kinney, Consultant Neurologist, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, who will present clinical updates on epilepsies.
Dr Lina Nashef
Guest presentation
A guest presentation will then be delivered by Dr Lina Nashef, Consultant Neurologist, King’s College Hospital, London, UK.
The title of the lecture is ‘What’s in a name? Are ILAE [International League Against Epilepsy] criteria for diagnosing Lennox-Gastaut syndrome easily applicable in adult patients in this era of novel, but restricted treatments?’.
Dr Nashef qualified from the University of Bristol in 1980 and trained in Bristol hospitals, Charing Cross Hospital, the National Hospital, and King’s College Hospital. Her research field and publications included mortality and sudden death in epilepsy, the subject of her MD thesis.
She has an interest in the assessment and treatment of patients with complex epilepsy, including adults with intellectual disabilities.
Her publications include co-authoring the Oxford specialist handbook on epilepsy (2009) and co-editing a textbook on neurology and pregnancy (2012), with a new edition due in 2026. She is a trustee and previously the Chair of a British-based charity supporting medical education for Palestinian medical students and doctors.
Dr Nashef previously served as a member of the UK’s Secretary of State for Transport’s Honorary Medical Advisory Panel on driving and disorders of the nervous system, the Association of British Neurologists (ABN) services subcommittee, the education subcommittee, and was an ABN council member until 2021.
Parkinsonism and migraine
The afternoon programme will begin with a session on Parkinsonism, chaired by Prof Richard Walsh, Consultant Neurologist, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (MMUH), Dublin.
Prof Anhar Hassan, Consultant Neurologist, MMUH, will present a talk titled ‘Parkinson’s disease: A review of the pathophysiology’.
Dr Asya Tacheva, Neurology SpR, will follow with an outline of the diagnosis and management of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease for GPs and general physicians, before Dr Diana Olszewska, Consultant Neurologist, Cork University Hospital, discusses novel biomarkers in Parkinsonism.
The final session will focus on migraine and related disorders and will be chaired by Dr Thomas Peukert, Consultant Neurologist, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.
Dr Damien Ferguson, Consultant Neurologist, St James’s University Hospital, will present an update on the pathophysiology of migraine.
Dr David Burke, GP with a special interest in migraine, Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin, will then discuss migraine management in general practice.
The meeting will conclude with a talk from Dr Alina Buture, Consultant Neurologist, MMUH, on the emerging connections between migraine, obesity, and idiopathic intracranial hypertension, after which Dr Munteanu will deliver closing remarks.
The 2026 Neurology Update Meeting will be of interest to neurologists, general physicians, and general practitioners
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