The Preface to the Proceedings of the 1st Symposium, held at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle in 1999, reads as follows:

At the end of 1998, Vibration White Finger had been in the news a great deal and there was much debate in legal and medical circles about methods of confirming a diagnosis.

George Proud (who had been heavily involved in British Coal cases) thought that there would be interest in a conference wholly devoted to the subject. Tim Lees agreed, and I was invited to join them on the organising committee.

We thought that there would be great interest in a symposium devoted to HAVS, and did not let ourselves be deterred by the doubters who thought the subject had been “done to death” – many thanks to all those reading this who proved us right!

We hoped to achieve a number of aims by holding the symposium:

Firstly, we wanted it to be a place where both doctors and lawyers could discuss the issues, in a non-contentious environment. So often, the only contact between the two professions is in a litigation context, and there is no time to sit back and reflect on the issues and discover each other’s positions. Many consultants have said that they would understand their instructions better if they understood the context, and as a lawyer I find that I sometimes do not understand the consultants.

Secondly, we wanted to bring together the leading experts in their fields with a view to all the different issues being discussed and (hopefully) understood. We believe we succeeded in that aim, and were particularly pleased that Peter Pelmear was free to attend. All the speakers have national – and sometimes international – reputations in their field.

We wanted to ensure that the topical issue of “objective testing”, about which many people had doubts, was thoroughly discussed, and also to try and give all of the “non-technical” professionals who have to deal with the subject, some idea of the way vibration is measured.

Finally, we wanted to try and create an atmosphere that would not be partisan in any way – so often, positions are taken up that lead to a lack of communication and understanding, thus hindering rather than helping.

Claire Hodgson

Since then, the 2nd 3rd and 4th Symposia were equally as successful, and we will be thinking about the next whilst preparing the record of proceedings from the 4th.

Our aims still are to provide such a forum - and of course now we have the technology to make that interactive, so we have set up this website as well which will be fully launched at the Symposium.

As you can see, we plan a forum, so we can discuss issues - on a "without prejudice" basis of course! - and where links to new research and cases can be posted, and that discussed.