November, 2013
Dear Colleagues,
Please accept my profound thanks for all the well wishes I’ve received as we embark on the next chapter of ANA history. I just returned from Mexico, where I spent time with members of the Mexican Academy of Neurology. That trip comes on the heels of a brief but very productive visit to Indore, India, where I spoke at the Indian Academy of Neurology’s Annual Meeting.
Such international outreach will be a major focus of my time as ANA President. I believe it is supremely important that we continue the progress made by my predecessors, Bob Macdonald and Eva Feldman, in making the ANA a vehicle for advancing the causes of neurology and neuroscience. That means sustaining the wonderful momentum begun in 2012 with the establishment of new membership rules, which accounted for more than 300 new members this year alone.
I want to expand the ANA’s reach even further. We’ve already reached out to the Association of British Neurologists and the Societe Francaise de Neurologie, and those interactions forged important bonds for our organization. My goal is to expand those collaborations even further, and that’s exactly why I’ve been to India and Mexico in my first month as ANA President. Expect to hear more in the months ahead about our work with the Indian Academy of Neurology, the Mexican Academy of Neurology and hopefully other organizations that can help us advance the discovery of new treatments for neurologic disorders.
ANA focus: Outreach, Discovery
In addition to sustaining the wonderful momentum that brought the ANA more than 300 new members this year, I hope to focus our organization on the following:
- Continued robust career development programs.
- Making the ANA the premier vehicle for communications about exciting new discoveries in neuroscience.
- Letting the community at large know how the ANA gives neurologists and neuroscientists better tools with which to make important discoveries.
- Doing everything we can to enhance discovery and development of neurotherapeutics.
Understanding how we can interact with neurologists around the world to further the cause of treating and curing neurological disorders.
Annals white paper issue online
If you haven't already, I urge you to read the September issue of the ANA journal, Annals of Neurology, which consists of a series of white papers defining the state of our field. These provide multiple important reviews of therapeutic prospects for several major neurological disorders and include a fascinating entry on neuro-rehabilitation that highlights neuroprosthetics as the near-future of meaningful care for a broad number of disorders that cause significant disability.
Read the Annals white paper issue here
Welcome new ANA leaders
I would also like to welcome several new members of the ANA leadership team:
- President-elect Stan Prusiner, MD, University of California, San Francisco
- Secretary Jack Parent, MD, University of Michigan
- Councilor Argye Hillis, MD, MA, Johns Hopkins University
- Councilor Peter Goadsby, MB, BS, University of California, San Francisco
- Councilor Jonathan Mink, MD, PhD, University of Rochester
See the full Council
SPAC adds five new faces
The Scientific Program Advisory Committee, which determines the scientific portion of the ANA Annual Meeting, has added five new members to serve through 2016. SPAC will be chaired by Sam Pleasure of UCSF:
- Henry Paulson, University of Michigan
- Charlotte Sumner, Johns Hopkins University
- Laura Ranum, University of Florida
- Merit Cudkowicz, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Bill Seeley, University of California, San Francisco
- And special thanks to those rotating off SPAC for an outstanding job, including Frances Jensen (Penn), Joel Perlmutter (Washington U.), Jack Parent (Michigan), John Greenamyre (Pittsburgh), James Meschia (Mayo Florida) and Chair Bill Mobley (UCSD).
See updated SPAC list here
Sincerely,
Robert H. Brown, Jr., D.Phil., M.D.
University of Massachusetts
President, American Neurological Association