In an interview with SmartTRAK, Konstantin Slavin, MD, president of the International Neuromodulation Society (INS), discusses the latest research and innovation in neuromodulation and the top takeaways from the 17th World Congress of the International Neuromodulation Society (INS 2026) held in Lisbon, Portugal from May 9-14.
To find out more, including current and future directions in neuromodulation, click on the video below (26:08 minutes) to listen to the interview. A link to download the full transcript of the interview is also provided below.
SmartTRAK: Hi everyone. Anne Staylor here with SmartTRAK. Today I am at the International Neuromodulation Society meeting in Lisbon, and I'm talking with INS President, Dr. Konstantin Slavin. Dr. Slavin is professor, chief of section and fellowship director for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Hi, Dr. Slavin. Thank you for talking with me again today.
Dr. Konstantin Slavin: Hi, Ms. Staylor. Thank you very much for having me.
I understand this has been a smash hit of a meeting and very successful, so congratulations. What is the estimated attendance, do you know?
KS: Thank you for saying that. It is really both surprising and encouraging to see that we are beating all records. The most recent count was about 1850 attendees, which is significantly higher than we ever had. So we have observed gradual growth and attendance since the times of COVID, and now we are overshadowing the results even of pre-COVID era. But that is a testament not only to successful meeting and good scientific program that we have here, but also the growth of the popularity of neuromodulation. I think as neuromodulation grows throughout the world, we will see more people getting interested in this modality. And the unique things about neuromodulation congresses like what we have here through International Neuromodulation Society, is the fact that we are very much multidisciplinary entity. We have clinicians, we have researchers, we have engineers. We have representatives from various medical fields, way beyond pain specialty, which was our driving force in the beginning.
Right now we have specialists in movement disorders and psychiatric indications and epilepsy. People talking about gastrointestinal and genitourinary disorders. The spectrum is growing and so are our meetings. So that it's not, I guess, completely surprising to see this tremendous increase in number of attendees and quality of scientific topics.
Yes. It also doesn't hurt that it's in a beautiful location. Lisbon is particularly nice. And I understand it's going to be in Dublin next year?
KS: In two years.
In two years.
KS: Yes, these meetings happen every two years. So Lisbon played a remarkably important role in all this, not just because of the location itself, with its own hospitality and the beautiful weather we are spoiled with here, but also because of the tremendous support from our local organizing committee. Whenever we have international meetings, we have our local chapters helping us in putting things together and arranging for some local events. For example, here we had a standalone symposium for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking neuromodulators. It was Hebrew-American Symposium, which turns out to be the fifth one already we're holding. And then we have later this afternoon, we have the public outreach event, which will be in Portuguese language addressing the potential patients, caregivers, and anybody interested in neuromodulation. We have this tradition for a long time. The last one we had in Vancouver was tremendously well attended with subsequent discussions on social media, public press and so forth.
We hope to have the same level of involvement and exposure here. And that's something that will continue. As to the future meetings, we do have Congress every two years and the location for next Congress just was announced recently. So we will have it in Dublin in May of 2028. But even before that, we're going to have a European INS meeting, which also has become our tradition happening in odd years. So the next one will be in May of 2027 in Brussels. So basically both you and your listeners are welcome to join us there. This will be yet another set of groundbreaking events showcasing the innovation of neuromodulation, allowing you to meet and network with your colleagues throughout the world, throughout the spectrum of neuromodulation and offerings.
Okay. For people who did not attend this meeting, what would you say are some of the top takeaways here at INS 2026?
KS: Well, the INS 2026 is still going. So at the time we record this interview, I have not heard all the talks yet. However, from what I've seen and heard, the attention is shifting. We are now talking about not simply relieving the symptoms but actually modifying the activity of the nervous system. We had groundbreaking talks about brain-computer interface that allow us to input sensory information to the brain, to record the minuscule activity of the brain cells that has to do with either movements or speech. The prospects of neurorestoration and neurorehabilitation, something that we have not really paid enough attention in the past are now ...
Click the button below to download the full transcript of "INS 2026: Charting New Paths in Neuromodulation," Anne Staylor’s interview with INS President Konstantin Slavin, MD.