American Samoa
Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda
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United States
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Jorge L. Juncos,
Chairman
The mission of the Pan American Section (PAS) of MDS continues to be promoting movement disorders education throughout the region which encompasses Northern Canada to Tierra del Fuego.
This seemingly daunting task is being tackled with grace by the Organizing and Education Committees. Since our meeting in Toronto the PAS Education Committee has expanded its membership to absorb additional work stemming from new initiatives planned in the Americas.
At the beginning, PAS concentrated on the development of education programs in Central America and South America as mandated by the Organizing Committee. The goal was to better these regions with the MDS educational opportunities and to better coordinate the excellent working relationship that already existed among members of these regions. Our goal is to build stronger bridges between activities in the Americas and the Caribbean and in the process enhance the learning experience in for all.
The role of the MDS-PAS Organizing Committee has been to identify and prioritize initiatives to help the educational mission of PAS and to organize the section’s first elections in 2013. Priorities have been organized based on input received by PAS Organizing Committee Members using a survey and analysis of strengths and weaknesses. These questionnaires have helped to identify local resources, regional interests, potential sources of funding and members that are willing to take a leading role in the organization of educational courses and regional symposia.
Committee members are encouraged to work with local and international organizations in order to provide traction and synergy for educational activities and to avoid redundancy. One example is the International Symposium being planned in La Paz, Bolivia in March of 2012. Under the leadership of Dr. Janeth Laguna, MDS is in the process of organizing a satellite Movement Disorders Symposium to the WFN Pan American Congress. It is our hope that these types of courses help to build links between MDS and the general neurology community and expand the reach of our educational opportunities.
With the development of the first “Pan American School for Young Neurologists”, course directors Francisco Cardoso and Carlos Rieder hope to do just that. This unique learning opportunity was developed by MDS members in the European Section and has seen much success over the last four years.
We hope to generate as much enthusiasm from participants and faculty alike when debuted in PAS October 28-30 in São Paulo, Brazil. This three day course will combine didactics, video presentations and the examination of local patients that display a broad spectrum of movement disorders. This course will provide students with one on one collegiality with national and international experts in the field and information to students seeking training opportunities.
In addition to these courses, PAS continues to utilize the MDS Ambassador Program throughout the region. Past activities have been characterized by the broad participation of general physicians as well as specialty neurologists. In fact, movement disorders specialists have been in the minority. In many cases, particularly during the most recent activity held in El Salvador, organizers were able to reach general internal medicine practitioners and other non-neurology groups that were particularly interested in hearing about the more common movement disorders. The presentations were extended to include participation by patients and their families through a symposium for patients with Parkinson’s disease. With my shameless use of Spanish, I joined local experts to bring the audience an update on this condition.
The PAS Organizing Committee continues to lay the groundwork for the first electoral process to take place in 2013. We will soon select a nominating committee and create a timeline for these elections. Proposed bylaws will be translated into various constituent languages and distributed to the membership for comment. Voting on these bylaws will be a first order of business for the newly elected PAS Executive Committee.
Look forward to reading about our ongoing activities in future issues of Moving Along.
Atentamente,
Jorge L. Juncos, MD
Chair, PAS Organizing Committee