January to April 2004

January - February 2004

Instructors Meeting - iSTOP Vancouver

Over the weekend January 30 to Febuary 1, 2004, instructors from all over the world gathered at iSTOP in Vancouver, to discuss, amongst others, the future of IMS and standardizing the IMS course and material.

Instructors who attended were from:

Qualified as chartered Physiotherapist 10 years ago, I became aware of Dr Gunn's concept of Neuropathy 5 years ago when attending an introductory course on acupuncture for pain relief.  Dr Gunn's model fit with my understanding and clinical experience, and so I attended an IMS course at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, UK.

My first experience of being needled myself, was very profound and showed me how powerful the technique was.

I have now visited iSTOP on several occasions and use GunnIMS as my main treatment, and have had much success in treating a wide variety of chronic and disabling conditions.

I became a GunnIMS instructor two years ago and have run GunnIMS courses for physiotherapists and doctors at Kings College Hospital, London, where I work part-time as a clinical specialist in the Neurosurgical department.  the remaining time is spent at my private practice in South London.

I have just returned from the First Worldwide Instructors Meeting held at iSTOP 30 January to 1 February in Vancouver.  It was a coming together of clinicians with a shared belief in the importance of this treatment and was successful in developing the educational practices of iSTOP.

The training of more practitioners is vital in order to make this treatment more accessible to the public.

  - James Pinkney

 I have taught courses with the AFCI and with Dr. Gunn’s organization, the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Pain (iSTOP). I have presented lectures about the treatment of myofascial pain using IMS to postgraduate resident physicians at UBC and at various medical conferences.

Since immigrating to Israel in 1995 I have worked as both a salaried and then an independent physician with Maccabi Health Services at their clinics in Kiryat Malachi and in Maalot, as well as in Bar Yochai.

The weekend of January 30 to February 1, 2004 brought instructors in IMS from all over the world to Vancouver.  33 instructors attended a significant meeting that documented a number of important factors with regards to future IMS courses.  

Friday and Saturday was spent with deciding who are allowed to attend an IMS course, who are eligible to run an IMS course, what are to be taught during a course, etc.  The meeting was fruitful in the sense that we got to know how courses are run in other parts of the world and what are used during these courses.  We were also informed on how IMS are being perceived and received in other countries.

A very important decision made at this meeting is that an Instructors Meeting should be held every two years.

Dr John Kent, Israel

IMS Course, Vancouver

At the end of April another group of practitioners completed Part 1 of the IMS course.  Once again we were able to send out new practitioners all over the world.  We had participants from all over Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.  We wish all the new practitioners much success with this new technique.

May to August 2004

June 18 - 20, 2004

Dr Gunn, as visiting Professor,  and Dr Lam was invited to give lectures on IMS at the IASP Conference in Lima, Peru.  Their talks covered a total of 5 hours - that included lectures, demonstrations as well as the Plenary Lecture which was attended by ± 1200 attendees.  

Topics they discussed:

The three phases of pain: nociception, inflammation and chronic pain - Dr Chan Gunn 
What is chronic pain? The nature of neuropathic pain - Dr Dr Chan Gunn
Physical signs of neuropathic pain (radiculopathic pain) - Dr Allan Lam
Principles of treatment: analgesia induced by stimulation - Dr Allan Lam
Segmental nature of neuropathic/radiculopathic pain - Dr Chan Gunn
PLENARY CONFERENCE:  Chronic Pain of Neuropathic-Radiculopathic Origin - Dr Chan Gunn

The lectures was received with enthusiasm.

September to December 2004