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Annual Meeting to Offer Spanish-language Curriculum
The Annual Meeting continues to expand programming and networking opportunities for Spanish speaking attendees. The 2023 meeting will offer six courses presented entirely in Spanish—including two new topics not included in previous meetings. Course highlights: Dementia The course will cover clinical diagnosis, neuroimaging, neuropathology, biomarkers and genetics, and a discussion of treatments and therapies. Headache Learn about the pathophysiology of migraine and trigeminal autonomic headaches (TAC), episodic and chronic migraine, cluster headaches, clinical pearls, and treatment options. Infections in CNS Explore what’s new with CNS infections, emerging and re-emerging infections, challenges and concepts in infection management, and new immunological and molecular techniques in the diagnosis of CNS infections. Other courses include: Neuroimaging Neuroimmunology Neurocritical Care In addition, the meeting will offer a number of Spanish-language networking opportunities throughout the week. Visit AAN.com/AMSpanish to learn more and for updates as they become available.
Industry Therapeutic Updates Highlight Pipeline Progress, Updates
Among the variety of Annual Meeting learning opportunities designed to arm attendees with the knowledge and tools to improve patient care are Industry Therapeutic Updates (ITUs). These popular sessions have been a mainstay of the Annual Meeting for many years, offering a unique chance for the Academy’s valued industry partners to highlight progress and updates within their respective pipelines and current therapies for patients with neurologic disease. The 2023 Annual Meeting will offer changes for how attendees can view this important content. Lunchtime ITU Slots Added
In addition to being able to attend evening ITUs at the nearby Omni,
Westin, and Aloft hotels on
Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday beginning at 6:00 p.m., 2023 Annual Meeting attendees will now be able to catch ITU sessions over the lunch hour in the Boston
Convention and Exhibition Center on these same days, but from 11:45 a.m–12:45 p.m. The additional time slots will allow meeting attendees to more easily view multiple ITUs throughout the week. Emerging Technologies
Presentation Stage
Attendees will have additional opportunities to learn about emerging technologies and therapies in the field during these interactive short-form presentations at the new Emerging Technologies
Presentation Stage located inside the Exhibit Hall. Livestreaming in the Virtual Platform Select ITUs will be livestreamed in the virtual Annual Meeting platform during their regularly scheduled times only. They will not be available on demand after the live session, so attendees are encouraged to connect with ITU hosting organizations for further details on any content they may have missed. How to Find ITUs and Emerging Technologies Presentations To learn more about this year’s ITU and Emerging Technologies lineup: Visit the Annual Meeting Program search on AAN.com/AM where sessions are clearly delineated as being industry related and include the hosting company’s name Once on-site at the meeting, use the AAN Conferences mobile app to quickly search schedules Connect with hosting companies prior to the meeting or on-site in their exhibit space
ITUs Coming to AAN.com
Are you looking for updates from industry outside of the AAN conference schedule? Starting in 2023, AAN members will have access to view timely Industry Therapeutic Updates (ITUs) from industry partners in the AAN.com Online Learning Center. These 90-minute updates include exciting new indications, emerging therapies, timely pipeline updates, and more. Look for updates on future ITU schedules on AAN.com.
The Four Horsemen and the Lobotomist continued from cover
Forster, MD, FAAN; and Russell DeJong, MD, FAAN. With Baker at the helm, they were known collectively as “the Four Horsemen,” a nickname derived from “the Four Horsemen of the Notre Dame”— the legendary backfield for the 1922 champion football team. “We were really an unusual combination,” Forster said. “Abe was of a big city practicing Jewish family of the merchant class. Ady Sahs was from a small town in western Iowa and a Congregationalist. Russ was of Michigan Dutch derivation. His family included distinguished state Supreme Court judges. I was from a blue collar, Roman Catholic background on the edge of Cincinnati but had trained and remained teaching in the East. The differences in our backgrounds gave us an ecumenical approach to many problems.”
Adolph L. Sahs, MD, FAAN (1906–1986)
“I did my residency under Dr. Sahs and he was a great teacher. He was popular as a lecturer and at the bedside. He had an intuitive feel for patients and their problems. He took their history by typing as the patient was in the office. He had a quiet sense of humor, and it was rare for him to lose his temper. In his youth, he was a very good baseball player and played in college. He was an excellent ham radio operator. Along with helping establish the AAN and serving as its president, he also was president of the American Neurological Association and of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. I thought he was the best clinical neurologist I ever saw, and he was a humble man.” —Robert J. Joynt, MD, FAAN, AAN President 1977–1979 Abraham B. Baker, MD, FAAN (1908–1988)
Russell N. DeJong, MD, FAAN (1907–1990)
“Dr. DeJong was a steady, tireless worker. I suspect he liked editorial duties better than almost anything except perhaps working on The Neurologic Examination, which came from the same typewriter. He was an occasional gardener and historian of neurology with an excellent memory for historical facts. I never knew him to take a vacation in the first 10 years of our association, nor did he miss a day for illness. He was kind, thoughtful, and a gentleman. He was quiet and shy. One day Dr. DeJong showed up on the wards at Queen Square in his white jacket, ready to do a clerk’s duties. At the time, he was well known as the editor of Neurology. He had signed up for a clerkship like any American resident and no one there knew he was coming, to their embarrassment. Although he seldom told jokes, he had an impish sense of humor and was a willing participant in the occasional session of fun and gossip at meetings.” —Robert D. Currier, MD, FAAN “His genius can be fully appreciated only by the thousands of former students who sat riveted to their seats on any given Saturday morning while he established in his inimical style that ‘There could only be one diagnosis,’ demonstrated a variety of gait disturbances, or, perhaps most memorable of all, invited them to ‘Tell me the first sentence of the history and we will begin to think about this case together.’ "His teaching style was unique and effective; his commitment to teaching was awesome. I once came upon him in his office late on a Friday night, preparing a medical student lecture for Saturday morning on a topic he must have lectured about hundreds of times in his teaching career. When I commented to that effect and suggested he quit for the night, Dr. Baker answered, ‘My medical students deserve my best effort.’ Those few simple words summarized the lifelong philosophy of a dedicated and inspiring teacher.” —Milton Ettinger, MD, FAAN
Francis M. Forster, MD, FAAN (1912–2006)
“Frank Forster taught and practiced neurology in an era when none of our current sophisticated neuroimaging techniques existed, an era in which an extensive patient history and a careful neurologic examination were the most valuable diagnostic modalities. Both at the bedside and in the clinic, he always emphasized their importance and instilled this into all his students and residents. He loved his residents and believed that training and mentoring them were among his greatest accomplishments. Dr. Forster’s charismatic personality made neurology exciting and dynamic for those who worked with him, as I did as a resident from 1960 to 1963. Making rounds with him was always an exciting adventure. He was a charming and captivating storyteller who liked nothing better than to go into great detail on any subject. This prompted his beloved wife, Helen, to comment, ‘Ask Frank the time of day and he will tell you how to build a watch.’” —Ludwig Gutmann, MD, FAAN
Alice and Adolph L. Sahs, MD, FAAN, at the 1955 Annual Meeting. Madge and Russell N. DeJong, MD, FAAN, at the 1955 Annual Meeting.
At the University of Minnesota during the winter of 1948, Baker and Joe R. Brown, MD, FAAN, drew up organizational papers for the new organization. Brown, the AAN’s first secretary-treasurer, later recalled, “Abe Baker found a copy of a dental association constitution. We sat in his office over a few days’ time, copied large parts of this constitution with modifications to fit the principles of the Academy, and distributed the resulting document to the 52 original fellows for ratification.” The American Academy of Neurology was incorporated in the state of Minnesota on March 13, 1948.
Baker invited leading neurologists to Chicago for an organizational summit in June 1948 that coincided with the annual meeting of the American Medical Association at the Stevens Hotel. Some 70 or so neurologists attended. According to Brown, it quickly bogged down into a three-hour linguistic quagmire. “The first item of business was the presentation of the constitution and bylaws. This stirred extensive responses in the group, not to the principles involved but to the wordings used. Almost every neurologist present seemed to have an opinion as to how each phrase should be worded and where each punctuation mark should be placed. The discussion went on almost unendingly until it became necessary to stop it. This was accomplished by pointing out that the constitution had already been accepted and that any recommendations for change would have to be referred to a committee on constitution and bylaws.” And then it got worse. “The final item of business for the day was the election of officers,” Brown continued. “It was planned to have one organizational year with a president [Baker], vice president [Pearce Bailey], and secretary-treasurer [Brown], followed by a regular two-year term for the officers. For this reason, the nominating committee did not propose a candidate for president elect, a failure that soon demonstrated our naivete. After the slate of three officers was presented, one member of the audience noted that no one had been named for the office of president elect. He jumped up and nominated Walter Freeman for the office. Then someone else jumped up and moved that the nominations be closed.”
Helen and Francis M. Forster, MD, FAAN, at the 1955 Annual Meeting. Walter J. Freeman, MD
Dr. Walter J. Freeman, a prominent Washington, DC, neurologist, had played no role in forming the association. He was a controversial figure known for his zealous performances of lobotomies. Freeman was elected to succeed Baker in 1949 and his apparent coup provoked talk of disbanding the new Academy and starting over. As Brown related, “Dr. Freeman was known as a very influential and strong-willed person. His becoming President elect was looked on by the organizers of the Academy as a real threat to the future of the organization. After the meeting and the election were over, there was a discussion about what could be done. One suggestion made was that everyone resign and start a new organization. On returning home, however, I reviewed the records and found out that Dr. Freeman not only was not a fellow but also had not joined the Academy and had not paid his dues. Consequently, he was not eligible to be an officer. It became my task to write him of this fact. He returned a letter graciously withdrawing his name. He attended future meetings of the Academy and always was friendly during that time.” Through a mail vote of the membership, Baker secured his full term as president and served in this role until 1951. He continued to be actively involved with the AAN for the rest of his career, particularly in guiding special courses for the Annual Meetings into the 1960s. Forster and Sahs later served as president. DeJong became the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Neurology®, which began publication in 1951; it was a position he held for 26 years. In 1959, looking back to that tumultuous meeting, Baker wrote, “Only three people realize that the Academy almost collapsed shortly after it was formed. These three are Dr. Joe Brown, Dr. [Frederick] Lewey, and myself, and Dr. Lewey has passed away. If it hadn’t been for Dr. Lewey’s support I’m afraid I wouldn’t have had the courage to write Dr. Freeman, who was very strong in the field at that time. You can rest assured that all plans for the Academy were carefully considered thereafter so that its growth could not be jeopardized.” Learn more about the AAN's remarkable history at AAN.com/History.
