The Child Neurology Knowledge Environment

BIRTH OF THE INTERNATIONAL CHILD NEUROLOGY ASSOCIATION

Everything started in the late 1960s, when Dr Sabine Pelc,a child neurologist from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, realized the need to establish a worldwide forum for physicians interested in the care of children with neurologic conditions. To do this, she decided to visit a number of countries in different geographic areas to identify trained child neurologists who shared her belief. At that time, there were already a number of leading scientists in charge of child neurology services around the world.In Europe, child neurology grew from two distinct models:as an outgrowth and subdivision of pediatrics, seen prototypically in Germany and in England, and as an anatomicallybased “twin” of child psychiatry, as typified by the Italian school.

Precursors of child neurology included Drs Thomas Ingham and Neil Gordon in the United Kingdom, Stéphane Thieffry in France, Drs Jacobus Willemse and Hans Prechtl in the Netherlands, Drs F. J. Schulte and Wilhelm Mortier in Germany, Drs Ingrid Gamstorp and Bengt Hagberg in Sweden, and Dr Sven Brandt in Denmark. In Italy,Drs Maurizio De Negri, Giovanni Cavazzuti, Alberto Fois, and Pietro Benedetti were the beginners of child neurology in the early 1960s.(1 ) In Oxford (England), Dr Ronald Mac Keith, a pediatrician with a special interest in the multidisciplinary care of children affected by cerebral palsy, organized from 1958 a biannual meeting of the Spastic Society’s Little Club.

The value of this fully international meeting came from the fact that only a selected group of about 60 child neurologists actively participated, presenting papers, exchanging clinical experience, and profiting from extensive discussions in English. These meetings led to the founding in 1970 of the European Study Group on Child Neurology, which 3 years later became the European Federation of Child Neurology Societies.

The first elected council was made up of six members, each representing regional European nations: Dr Neil Gordon (United Kingdom and Ireland), Dr Gilles Lyon(France, Italy, the Peninsula Iberica), Dr Jan Willemse(Benelux), Dr Franz Schulte (Central Europe), Dr Ivan Lesny (East Europe), and Dr Bengt Hagberg (Scandinavia).(2) At that time, two journals of child neurology were already well established in Europe: Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, founded in 1962 in the United Kingdom by Dr Mac Keith, and Neuropadiatrie, founded in 1969 in Germany by Dr F. J. Schulte. In Asia and Oceania, Dr Yukio Fukuyama of Japan, a future president of the International Child Neurology Association (ICNA), was a major mover in the development of pediatric neurology in the late 1960s.

Owing to Dr Fukuyama’s great efforts, the Japanese Society of Child Neurology was founded in 1961. He also founded the Japanese child neurology journal No to Hattatsu in 1969. Other child neurology pioneers of the period in Asia included Dr S. K. Hendarto in Indonesia, Dr P. Visudhiphan in Thailand, Dr P. Udani in India, and Dr N. Amir in Israel. In Australia, child neurology was first spread by Dr Ian Hopkins, who would later be a member of the ICNA’s first executive board. Since 1968, in the United States, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology has awarded certificates in neurology with special competence in child neurology.

Pioneers of child neurology included Drs Sydney Carter, Philip Dodge, David Clark, and Niels Low, a future president of the ICNA, in the United States and Drs J. Preston Robb and John Stobo Prichard, who was the founding president of the ICNA, in Canada.

Figure 1. Presidents of the International Child Neurology Association (left to right): John Stobo Prichard (Canada), 1973–1975; Niels Low (United States), 1975–1979; Ritske LeCoultre (the Netherlands), 1979–1982; Yukio Fukuyama (Japan), 1982–1986; Paul Casaer (Belgium), 1986–1990; Jean Aicardi (France), 1990–1994; Yoshiyuki Suzuki (Japan), 1994–1998; Shaul Harel (Israel), 1998–2002; and the current president, Paolo Curatolo

 In the United States, the Child Neurology Society was founded in 1972, under the leadership of Kenneth Swaiman (United States) during a meeting in Ann Arbor, MI. Dr Pelc (Belgium) was the only European to attend this founding meeting, at which she emphasized the need for an international child neurology organization.(3 )

In South America, some of the pioneers of child neurology were Dr Maria Antonietta Rebollo in Uruguay, Dr Antonio Lefevre in Brazil, and Dr Bernabe Cantlon in Argentina. The latter have all been members of the first ICNA executive board; they trained a number of younger colleagues and founded child neurology societies in each of their countries.

Through her endless travels, Dr Pelc managed to put together a satisfactory number of child neurologists who were interested in founding an international society and in meeting in 1973 at the 10th Congress of the World Federation of Neurology in Barcelona. The founding ICNA meeting, attended by 14 people, was characterized by some discussion regarding who was invited and who could be considered a child neurologist.

However, the concept of an international organization was accepted, and the ICNA was founded on September 12, 1973. Dr Pelc was elected secretary general and Dr John Stobo Prichard (Canada) was elected president. The initial membership of the ICNA consisted of 22 members from 19 countries.

The ICNA was incorporated in Brussels on August 14, 1974, by Baudoin,King of the Belgians. The constitution and by-laws of ICNA assert that its reason for being is to promote clinical and scientific research in the field of child neurology, encouraging high training qualification for child neurologists and providing a medium through which international communication is facilitated, to improve the quality of care of children suffering from neurologic disorders. This year, the ICNA celebrates its 30th anniversary, and this is an appropriate moment to honor the past, acknowledge the present, and shape the future of our association.