Brazil: In July, Rio de Janeiro was host to the Pan American Games, and many national teams arrived with sports chiropractors, including Canada, Columbia, Mexico and the U.S. Host Brazil had three team chiropractors, with a fourth working in the polyclinic and available to treat athletes from all competing nations.
At the annual convention of the Brazilian Chiropractors' Association, held in Sao Paulo on Sept. 7, Dr. Juliana Piva of Rio de Janeiro was elected president. Dr. Piva, a graduate of the School of Chiropractic at the University Anhembi Morumbi in Sao Paulo, is the first Brazilian-trained chiropractor to serve as president.
Malaysia: Dr. Tom Ong, past president of the Malaysian Chiropractic Practitioners Association, and Dr. Phillip Ebrall, principal of the School of Chiropractic, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, confirm that an agreement has been reached with the International Medical University, Kuala Lumpar, under which the IMU will provide the first three years of a chiropractic education program for Malaysian students in Kuala Lumpur, with these students then completing their course at RMIT University in Melbourne.
South Korea: On Oct. 16, the third annual Chiropractic Symposium was held at the National Assembly in Seoul. This event, sponsored by legislators supporting draft chiropractic legislation and the Korean Chiropractic Association, was part of the ongoing campaign for recognition and regulation of chiropractic in South Korea, which, together with Taiwan, is one of the two countries in which chiropractors are still threatened with prosecution and imprisonment. Speakers included Dr. Rob Scott, representing Life University; Dr. Carol Grubstad, representing the American Chiro-practic Association; and WFC Secretary General David Chapman-Smith. In further support of KCA members, next year's WFC Council meeting will be held in Seoul from June 3-6.
Spain: Newly appointed faculty leader for Spain's first school of chiropractic, which recently opened at the Royal Maria Christina University (RCU) in Escorial near Madrid, is Dr. Ricardo Fujikawa of Brazil. Dr. Fujikawa, who has qualifications in chiropractic and medicine, is a Palmer graduate who has served in recent years as leader of the chiropractic program at Feevale Central University in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, as president of the Brazilian Chiropractors' Association and Latin American representative on the WFC Council.
Switzerland: Sept. 1, 2007 will remain a historic date for chiropractic in Switzerland. Chiropractic services have been included in Swiss federal laws and sickness insurances for some years, but as an exception, rather than on the basis of full recognition. Sept. 1 was the day that revised Swiss medical laws came into force, recognizing five major health professions on an equal basis in the health care system - chiropractic, dentistry, medicine, pharmacy and veterinary medicine. Swiss law requires all citizens to hold basic sickness insurances - and from this point, all such policies must include chiropractic services, on terms agreed by the government and the profession. Congratulations to the Association of Swiss Chiropractors and its president, Dr. Franz Schmid, on this major achievement.
