Report from the 1st Latin American Congress of Chiropractic

(far right): Dr. Young-Serb Song (Palmer 1989), President, Korean Chiropractors' Association, addresses the WFC's Korean Forum. (l-r): Dr. Kazuyoshi Takeyachi, Director, Japanese Chiropractic Association; Jung Bun Kim and Jhan Dee Kim, Korean students at Life College; and Won Kyo Seo, DC, a KCA member from Seoul (Palmer 1993).

Participants at the WFC's Korean forum (l-r): Dr. Louis Sportelli, WFC Secretary-Treasurer; Dr. Kazuyoshi Takeyachi, President, Japanese Chiropractic Association; Mr. David Chapman-Smith, WFC Secretary General; Dr. Carl Cleveland III, CCE President; Dr. Reed Phillips, LACC President; Dr. Won Kyo Seo of Korea; Dr. Paul Jaskoviak, Dean, Postgraduate and Continuing Education, Parker College; Dr. Gerard Clum, President, Association of Chiropractic Colleges; Dr. Lee, LACC faculty; Dr. Bruce Vaughan, WFC Council Asia and Past President, Hong Kong Chiropractors' Association; Dr. Medhat Al Attar, Life College; Jhan Dee Kim, Life College student; Dr. John Sweaney, WFC Vice President and Executive Director, Chiropractors' Association of Australia; Jung Bun Kim, Life College student; Dr. Christoph Diem of Switzerland, WFC President; Dr. Young-Serb Song, President, Korean Chiropractors' Association; Dr. Paul Hooper, LACC faculty; and Dr. Mitusumasa Endo, Chairman, Chiropractic Council of Japan.

Dr. Eduardo Henrique De Rose of Brazil, president of the Pan American Confederation of Sports Medicine and director of the Antidoping Commission of the International Olympic Committee, spoke on antidoping in sports medicine and pledged to work with sports DCs at all levels.

(r): Dr. John Allenburg, president of Northwestern College of Chiropractic, confers with Walter Wardwell, PhD, noted sociologist and chiropractic historian from Connecticut.

(l-r): Dr. Alfredo Orillac, president of the Panamanian Chiropractors' Association, who achieved legislation to recognize chiropractic in Panama in 1964, and Dr. Carl Cleveland III, president of the CCE and Cleveland Chiropractic Colleges, listen to the proceedings.

CANCUN, Mexico -- Chiropractors from around the world came to the this resort city on the Yucatan Peninsula May 23-28 for the annual meeting of the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) and the First Latin American Congress of Chiropractic, co-sponsored by Northwestern College of Chiropractic and chiropractors of Mexico and Latin America.

The meetings, which attracted not only chiropractic leaders worldwide but senior representatives of the Mexican government and the international sports medicine community, greatly advanced the cause of chiropractic. Dr. Eduardo De Gortari, director of the Health Ministry of Mexico, flew to Cancun to announce that the Mexican government wished to work closely with the Mexican chiropractic profession for better legislation for chiropractic and the establishment of a chiropractic college in Mexico City.

Dr. Eduardo Henrique De Rose from Brazil, vice president elect of the Federation of International Sports Medicine (FIMS) and director of the International Olympic Committee's Anti-Doping Commission, travelled to Cancun to speak of his work and explained that the sports medicine world now acknowledged and accepted the unique contribution being made by the chiropractic profession. He presented a FIMS shield to Dr. Enrique Benet-Canut, president of the Latin American Chiropractic Federation and vice president of the Federation Internationale de Chiropratique Sportive (FICS), explaining that this honor was given with the unanimous approval of the FIMS Board.

Highlights of the World Federation of Chiropractic Meeting

• WFC Council approval of new membership applications from national chiropractic associations in the Bahamas, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Ecuador, Iceland, Papua-New Guinea, and Thailand. The WFC, established in 1988, now represents national chiropractic associations in 57 countries, including both the ACA and ICA in the United States, and is processing applications from nine more countries.

   

• First announcement of a new university-based chiropractic school in Tokyo, with instruction in Japanese. This program, developed by the Japanese Chiropractic Association and the School of Chiropractic, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, will begin in April 1995. It will solve long-standing educational problems in Japan by creating a school that will advance to full CCE standards.

   

• The WFC Council decided to produce a new directory on chiropractic worldwide in time for distribution to DCs attending the Centennial celebrations in Washington, DC, Davenport, Iowa and Toronto, Canada next year.

   

• Dr. Sid Williams, founder and president of Life College, spoke on the importance of the WHO's new ICD 10 chiropractic codes, and announced a donation of $10,000 from Life College to the WFC.

   

• The WFC's premier research prize was named the Scott Haldeman Award, honoring the work of Scott Haldeman, DC, MD, PhD, who is chairman of the WFC's Research Council.

   

• There was a highly successful day-long South Korean Forum on Chiropractic convened because DCs and chiropractic organizations from the U.S. and Japan have been threatening the future of chiropractic in Korea by teaching chiropractic to non-DCs. The worst offenders have been some chiropractic vendor companies. Dr. Young-Serb Song, president of the Korean Chiropractors' Association, explained that he had been offered $125,000 by a Zenith dealer to give weekend courses in chiropractic to oriental MDs over a six-month period. He refused, but some DCs have not. (Ten DCs have returned to Korea during the past five years and currently there are approximately 100 Korean students in U.S. chiropractic colleges.)

   

• In other educational news, Dr. Robin Taylor, president of the New Zealand Chiropractors' Association, reported that the new chiropractic college in Auckland, New Zealand, which is affiliated with Auckland University, is flourishing. Dr. Gert van der Walt of South Africa, was able to say the same for the two government-funded chiropractic schools in his country.

   

• On the legislative front, Dr. Tony Metcalfe of England, president of the European Chiropractors' Union, reported that:

Finland now has legislation recognizing chiropractic.

A draft of the U.K. Chiropractors' Act has been passed by the House of Commons and should become law by July.

Denmark has repealed the former legislation that restricted chiropractors from treating infants under the age of one.

Highlights of the Latin American Congress

The academic program featured presentations by leaders in research (Dr. Scott Haldeman and Dr. Reed Philips); chiropractic technique (Dr. Tom Bergmann); chiropractic philosophy (Dr. Galen Price); education (NWCC President Dr. John Allenburg, Drs. Paul Tullio and Frank Hideg of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners); history (Dr. Walter Wardwell); sports chiropractic (Drs. David Peterson, Tom Hyde, Enrique Benet-Canut, and Luis Valera); politics (WFC President Dr. Christoph Diem of Switzerland, and WFC Secretary-Treasurer Dr. Louis Sportelli);

A superb entertainment program included an outdoor Mayan folklorico ballet and trips to the Mayan ruins at Tulum and Chichen Itza.

At the closing banquet many acknowledged this as the most exciting chiropractic meeting they had ever attended and there was high tribute to the principal organizers: Dr. Enrique Benet-Canut and his wife Patricia Gregg de Benet of the Mexican College of Chiropractors, and Dr. John Allenburg and Mr. Jim McDonald of Northwestern College of Chiropractic.