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September 16, 2017 was a big day in the history of North American neural therapy. On that day a group of 11 physicians gathered at the Chicago O'Hare Hilton with the purpose of forming a North America association for neural therapy. Most of those attending had been at the International Conference for neural therapy in Ottawa in May of this year. A few others with known experience and enthusiasm for neural therapy were also invited. At least half a dozen more expressed a wish to attend but for various reasons were unable to. The group was diverse geographically (with two members from west coast USA, two from Canada, one from Puerto Rico) and professionally (two DOs, two NDs, a MD-ND, a psychiatrist, an anaesthetist, and a physiatrist. Most were in private practice, were well-established in their careers and had administrative experience. The first order of business was to decide who should be members. After considerable discussion the consensus was that anyone with adequate medical training who was licensed to inject could be Regular Members. This would include MDs, American-trained DOs, dentists, veterinarians and naturopaths (from jurisdictions permitting injections). This decision was made despite the risk of not complying with the membership regulations of IFMANT (International Federation of Medical Associations of Neural Therapy). IFMANT is based in Europe and accepts only MDs and dentists as regular members. It was felt that this limitation of membership does not take into account the realities of medical education and practice in North America. Other categories of membership included Founding members, Associate members and Student/Resident members. Founding members would be those pledging $1000 to a start-up fund for registering the organization, creation of website, beginning planning of the next conference, etc. The name for the new organization is North American Academy of Neural Therapy. The word "academy" was chosen to reflect its primary purpose of education. "North American" includes Canada, USA and its territories, Mexico and Central America. However it is recognized that Mexico and South America have well established neural therapy organizations functioning in Spanish. The emphasis will be on co-operation and not competition. With regard to a definition of neural therapy, it was decided to adopt the declaration of the Heidelberg Charter that "neural therapy is the diagnostic and therapeutic use of local anaesthetics". Although many North American neural therapists employ other methods, it was felt best for the sake of clarity and unity with our European colleagues to adopt this international standard. An executive was elected as follows: President - Rob Banner MD (Canada), Past president - Robert Kidd MD,CM (Canada), Vice president ‐ Perry Perretz DO, (USA), Secretary ‐ Bernadette Kohn DO, (USA), Treasurer ‐ Michael Gurevich MD, (USA). Officers will serve two‐year terms with an option to renew for a further two years. A board of directors will consist of the executive and at least five other founding members. It was felt that at least one of these should be a dentist. Meetings of the board will be held twice a year, once virtually and once actually. By the next neural therapy conference, (hopefully two years from now), all officers will be elected by the regular membership. Among the first priorities will be incorporating, creating a constitution and by-laws, setting up a bank account and creating a website. Enquiries are underway as to whether registering as a non‐profit organization would be an advantage. The website will be an early priority because modern well‐designed websites can automate many of the functions previously assigned to paid staff. All of this is house‐keeping stuff. It has to be done, and done well, so that we can move on to our raison d'être, - learning and teaching neural therapy. Education and conference planning committees are already in the process of being formed with Jeff Harrisin charge of education, Isaak Yosef ‐ membership and credentials, and Antonio Jiminez ‐ Meeting,/Marketing/Public relations. At the time of the meeting it was decided that the next board meeting would be held in February 2018 in Puerto Rico, at the invitation of one of the founding members, Dr. Oswaldo Font. At the time of this writing we are awaiting news from Dr. Font as to whether this will still be possible in the aftermath of the recent hurricane damage. As the organization becomes established, invitations for regular membership will be issued through this newsletter and other channels. All of this will take time, but for those who would like to become founding members immediately and help to put this organization on its feet, we would ask you write a check of $1000 payable to NAANT Inc., attention Dr. Michael I. Gurevich, 887Glen Cove Avenue, Glen Head, NY 11545, USA. For more information contact Dr. Gurevich at MIGurevich@Gmail.com or by telephone at (516) 674-9489. ----------------------- Letter: Dear Dr. Kidd, A colleague asks me with regard to neural therapy about success rates in diabetic foot problems such as arthropathy. What is your view on this? Kind regards Rainer Kumm MD (rainer.kumm@yahoo.de) Dr Kumm, I have no experience in this, but will publish this in the hope that newsletter readers will share their experience. Robert Kidd MD,CM ----------------------- Sincerely, Robert F. Kidd, MD, CM |