The purpose of the conference was to present some recent chiropractic scientific developments in an academic setting and to honor American professor and sociologist Walter I. Wardwell's 40 years of academic research in health related fields, primarily in chiropractic.
Co-organizers of the conference were Pierre-Louis Gaucher-Peslherbe,1 D.C., Ph.D. (France); J. Gillet, D.C. (Belgium); and C.B. Illi D.C. (Switzerland).
The conference was supported by the three main chiropractic research institutions in Europe: Institut pour l'Etude de la Statique et de la Dynamique du Corps Humain (Geneva, Switzerland); Institut Europeen de Biomecanique (Brussels, Belgium); and the Chiropractic Research and Information Center (France).
Also among the conference supporters was the Patients' Association for the Development of Chiropractic in France, an organization that aids DCs faced with lawsuits for "illegal practice of medicine" in the French courts.
Dr. Gaucher-Peslherbe welcomed the guests and turned over the proceedings to Professor Alain Pleurdeau from Le Mans University (France). The conferees then heard from six distinguished speakers:
- Jean-Pierre Peter, medical historian and professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), spoke on the history of Western medicine and its "sinuous path between knowledge and misunderstanding."
- David Le Breton, an anthropologist at the Universite des Sciences Humaines (Strasbourg, France), explored the bases of our perceptions of the human body.
- Professor G. Ruggiero, neuroradiologist from Bologna University, Italy, discussed his latest anatomical and clinical data on chiropractic and the exploratory techniques that are giving new comprehension to the previously misunderstood mechanisms of the pathologies in neurophysiology.
- Dr. Flavio Bongoani, a neurosurgeon from Geneva, discussed chiropractic care following surgery.
- Guy Sermeus, a sociologist from Louvain University, Belgium, spoke on "Influence on outcome when measuring chiropractic patients' and practitioners' characteristics from different methodological approaches."
- Professor Walter Wardwell, professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, presented "Chiropractors: Myths and Reality."
Discussions followed the lectures and ended with a cocktail party.
The event was attended by such notables as Mr. R. Teulade, former president of the French Federation of Mutual Insurance Companies, now minister of social affairs in the French government; Prof. R. Pautrizel, member of the French Academy of Medicine; Prof. O.T. Solbrig, professor of biology, Harvard University; Recteur R. Troisfontaines, Universities of Namur and Louvain (Belgium); and Mrs. Henri Gillet of Belgium.
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1. Dr. Gaucher-Peslherbe, whose doctoral thesis on the history of medicine was published in 1985, will soon have published an English language version of his thesis, Chiropractic: Early Concepts in their Historical Setting. An article he co-authored with A.M. Michau-Pavot, D.C., and A. Stock, D.C., "Pelvic Pain and Dysfunction Due to Pelvic Girdle Dysfunction," was published in the California and South Central Forums in the May 22 issue of "DC" and in the International Forum, June 5, 1992.
Steve Kelly
Assistant Editor