 
Winter Newsletter - Message from the President,
Kern H. Guppy, M.D.,
Ph.D.
We are fast approaching our
62nd Annual
San Francisco Neurological Society
meeting, which will be
held between February 26th to February 28th
at The Lodge in Sonoma, California.
This year our speakers are well-known in the neurosciences and
the agenda covers various aspects of neurology and neurosurgery
including, brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, spine care, stroke
and movement disorders (for details
click here).
The
President’s Reception will be held on Friday 26th
at 6:00 pm with special guest Dr. Charlie Wilson, Professor
Emeritus, University
of California,
San Francisco. Earlier that afternoon
Dr. Brian Andrews will present excerpts from his new book “The
Cherokee Indian” - The Life of Dr. Charlie Wilson. The book and
presentation traces the life of one of the foremost
neurosurgeons during his early life and surgical career. Dr.
Wilson was a previous President of the
San Francisco
Neurological Society
Our
Annual Boldrey Lecture entitled “Carotid Endartectomy” will
be given by
Fredric B. Meyer, MD,
Chairman of Neurosurgery at the
Mayo Clinic. The Annual
Dinner with be held on Saturday the 27th of
February and will include fine dining, wines and a
double-header lecture – “The Wine Sella” by
Dick Maher, former
President of Beringer Vineyards, Seagram Wine Company
and Christian Brothers Winery. The second lecture will
be “Art and Neurology” given by Dr. Bruce Miller,
Professor of Neurology and clinical director of the Memory and
Aging Center at University of California, San Francisco.
“All work and no play”
means we have set aside various activities for all,
including our annual golf tournament, wine- tasting and
the 2nd Neuro-Cinema Festival organized by Dr.
Oscar N. Abeliuk where 3 films will be presented with a panel
discussion on each film. This is a unique way for neurologist
and non-neurologist to discuss well known films involving
people with neurological disease and to have a discussion about
its accuracy and
the
medical and social aspects of the disease. This year the films
include
“My Left Foot”(1989), “A
Beautiful Mind” (2001) and
“Adam“(2009). The public is
welcome.
The Residents have been always an integral
part of our society and in keeping with that tradition we will
be giving 3 awards this year – The
Newman, Boldrey and
Kaiser Awards for outstanding papers presented by residents
at our annual meeting. Further details can be obtained from
Amanda Pacia (apacia@sfneurological.org)
or by
clicking here.
Finally, in September, one of our own, Dr. Steven J Holtz
(Board Member of the SFNS 2009 - present) received the Dr. J.
Elliott Royer Award in Community Neurology from the Dean at
UCSF. The award is given for contributions to the field
of Neurology in research, teaching and community.
Congratulations Steve!
A reminder, the
California
Association of Neurological Surgeons (CANS) will have their
annual meeting on January 15th to 17th at
Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel in
Anaheim,
California. For more information
please check out their website:
www.cans1.org.
My dear colleagues and friends, I am looking forward to seeing
you all at The Lodge in Sonoma for the 62nd
Annual Meeting of the San Francisco Neurological Society.
Best regards and Happy Holidays,
Kern
H. Guppy, MD, PhD,
President of
the
San Francisco
Neurological Society
August
2009 Newsletter - Message from President, Kern H. Guppy,
M.D., Ph.D.
So far we have had a wonderful year with
great attendance from
our members at our Dinner Meetings in May and July. It is my
pleasure to invite you to the annual AIRD Dinner Meeting which
will be held on Tuesday, September 22, at Hotel Monaco in San Francisco.
As you are probably
aware this lecture was started to honor Dr. Robert Aird who
founded the Department of Neurology at the
University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). The
lecture is sponsored jointly between the
San Francisco
Neurological Society and the Department of Neurology at
UCSF.
This year’s speaker will be
Clifford Saper , MD, PhD,
James Jackson Putnam Professor of Neurology, Head of the
Department of Neurology At the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center,
Harvard Medical School.
His lecture will be entitled “Why Sleep” and will give
us an understanding of the
basic circuitry in the brain involved in sleep and the health
and cognitive impact of sleep loss.
I look forward to seeing you all at the AIRD Dinner meeting,
continuing the San
Francisco Neurological Society great tradition of blending
great education in the neurosciences in an atmosphere of
collegiality and friendship in our community.
Kern H. Guppy, M.D., Ph.D., President, San Francisco Neurological Society
April
2009 Newsletter - Message from incoming President,
Kern H. Guppy, M.D., Ph.D.
The San Francisco Neurological Society will celebrate
its 61st anniversary this year.
As the newly elected President of the society it is my
pleasure to invite you to participate in this years activities.
The San Francisco Neurological Society was founded on the goal
of increasing, improving and disseminating knowledge about the
neurosciences within the area of the Society's influence in the
Western United States.
Although our membership
predominantly includes neurologist and neurosurgeons, it also
has members in neuroradiology, neuropathology, neuropsychiatry,
neuro-oncology and physiatry (also known as physical medicine
and rehabilitation).
A series of four dinner meetings throughout 2009 will be on
various subjects of interest to our members. Besides the four
dinner meetings we will have our annual meeting in
February 2010
in Sonoma. Further
details of the program and dates will follow in next few
months.
Our first lecture will be on May 28th
at the
Hotel Monaco
and the guest speaker will be
J. Claude Hemphill
III, MD, MAS, Associate professor of Neurology at
University of California, San Francisco on
Intracerebral Hemorrhage: New Approaches to an Old Disease
Our goal this year, in our difficult economic times, is to
provide CME credit for lectures relevant to your
daily practice at a reasonable cost. We will
continue to expand membership locally and open up our meetings
to physicians in the neurosciences from all of California and the
adjoining states.
Each individual professional membership ($75 per year) enables
us to continue and expand our unique blend of
academic programs and fellowship that benefits all of us. Your
renewal or enrollment also helps keep our member
and mailing data base up to date, so that you can be notified
about upcoming programs.
If you have not already
done so, please go to the member page on
website and join or renew your membership in
the San Francisco Neurological Society, even if
you are not also signing up for a program at the same time.
I personally feel very confident that this will be a great year
for the Society. I look forward to continuing the great
tradition of blending great education in the neurosciences in
an atmosphere of collegiality and friendship.
Kern H. Guppy, M.D., Ph.D.,
President,
San Francisco
Neurological Society
Winter Letter from the President - January 2009
 Oscar
N. Abeliuk, MD,
President, San Francisco
Neurological Society
As has been previously announced,
Professor
Ioav Cabanchik, MD PhD,
Adelina and
Massimo Della Pergola
Chair of Life
Sciences, Hebrew
University, Jerusalem, Israel
will be our Keynote Speaker for the Annual Dinner on Saturday,
February 28th.
Professor Cabanchik is a distinguished researcher in
biochemistry and physiology, who will enlighten us about his
work in hematology that led to new understandings of the
pathophysiology of neurological conditions such as
Friedreichs ataxia.
Amanda Pacia, our new executive secretary, has been
working very hard at putting together a comprehensive syllabus,
which we hope to make available prior to the conference.
More than forty participants have already signed up a
historic record number to sign up so early.
We expect more than 125 attendees this year.
The posters announcing the Neurocinema Festival have been
placed in several cities.
This has given us some visibility in the community.
In the last 20 years neurologists such as Oliver Sacks
have written not just as doctors and scientists, but also as
humanists with a philosophic and literary bent.
Sacks book Awakenings, which inspired a major motion
picture, will be among the films presented and discussed at the
Festival. We
are encouraging interested members of the public to attend at
no charge to broaden the discussions following the screenings
to include the perspectives of physicians, patients and family
members effected by the disorders connected to the movie
scripts.
The topics to be covered at the Scientific Meeting are
important for practicing clinical neurologists and
neurosurgeons as well as academicians.
Spine disorders, neuroimaging and epilepsy will be
assessed in three focused mini-symposia.
In addition, Dr. Alex B. Valadka will deliver the 2009
Annual Boldrey Lecture; Traumatic Brain Injury.
The papers submitted for the Newman, Boldrey and Kaiser Awards
continue to arrive and will be accepted for review up until the
extended deadline of February 1st.
For the first time, the content of the Scientific Meeting will
be recorded in audio and video. We hope to make the recordings
available for future reference both to those who attended and
those who could not attend.
My dear colleagues and friends I am looking forward to seeing
you at the Casa Munras Hotel at the 61st Annual
Meeting of the San Francisco Neurological Society.
Best regards,
Oscar N. Abeliuk, MD,
President
December 2008 Newsletter
Oscar
N. Abeliuk, MD,
President, San Francisco
Neurological Society
In a previous
newsletter I described the upcoming
61st Annual Meeting of the San Francisco
Neurological Society, and many of you already may
have received the preliminary schedule for all the scientific sessions
scheduled to take place on February 27-28 and March 1, 2009.
As I
indicated in my last newsletter, this years meeting will inaugurate a
new feature that I hope will become a permanent part of our program.
We have decided to call it the Neuro-cinema
Festival. It is still in the embryonic stage; the
format is simple, and hopefully it will evolve into a richer and more
complex event. Following the screening of each movie
described in the synopsis below, we will have a panel of 3-4 discussion
leaders available. The selection was based on the connection of
the script to a particular neurological condition. Based on the
encouragement that we have received thus far, I am certain that the film
offerings will generate much interest and enthusiasm.
Festivals
traditionally integrate filmmakers, critics and the general public.
This event is aimed to offer us, as well as the public, an opportunity
to discuss these films from different perspectives. We
sincerely hope that you will enjoy as many of these as possible.
Awakenings
(encephalitis, Parkinsons Disease)
Based on the actual experiences of neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, Awakenings,
a 1990 film directed by Penney Marshall stars Robin Williams, Robert De
Niro, John Heard, and Julie Kavner. The film is a story about the trials
and tribulations of a pioneering neurologist played by Robin Williams
who takes a risk with giving his encephalitis patients a new drug used
commonly to treat Parkinsons Disease. Surprisingly, one patient
awakens from his perpetual catatonic state, triggering an onset of
patients awakening one by one from their solitary worlds.
Rainman
(autistic disorder)
Starring Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Golino, and Jerry Molden
and directed by Barry Levinson,
Rainman is a 1988 film illustrating a man and his
institutionalized autistic brothers journey of discovering one another
and dealing with autistic disorder. The script is based on the life of
an actual autistic patient.
Away From
Her (Alzheimers Disease)
Starring Julie Christie, Olympia Dukakis, Gordon Pinsent, and Michael
Murphy and directed by Sarah Polley,
Away From Her is a 2007 film adapted from the Alice
Munro story The Bear Came Over The
Mountain, and unfolds a riveting plot about a
couple who have been married 50 years dealing with the wifes
deteriorating progression of Alzheimers Disease.
Reviews of this film have appeared in Neurological publications such as
The Lancet
Neurology, Volume 6, Issue 8, Page 675,
August 2007
and
Neurology Today, 7(12):20,22, June
19, 2007.
M
(psychotic disorder)
Taking place in Germany, director Fritz Lang unravels the murder spree
of a psychotic child in his 1931 film
M. This film is considered to be a good
example of classical film noir, and it is the first use of leitmotif in
motion pictures. This film can stimulate some interesting discussion
about organic vs. non-organic impulse control, similar to the famed case
of Jack Ruby, killer of Lee Harvey Oswald.
The Diving
Bell and The Butterfly (stroke)
Directed by acclaimed painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, this 2007
film The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
is based on the best selling memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby, former
editor of French fashion magazine ELLE.
The film is a portrayal of one mans life after a stroke at the age of 43
that leaves him with blinking with one eye as his sole means of
communicating with the outside world.
An excellent review of this wonderful movie appeared in the March 6,
2008 issue of Neurology Today.
November 2008 Newsletter
Presidents Letter
Oscar
N. Abeliuk, MD,
President, San Francisco
Neurological Society
The upcoming Annual Meeting of our Society will take place on February
27-28 and March 1, 2009 at the
Casa Munras Hotel in the heart of Monterey.
As I submit this newsletter, the final schedule has been
completed and the program has been forwarded to all our members.
The keynote speaker for Saturday nights dinner will be announced
soon.
We are very excited about the terrific program that we have been able to
assemble. Aside from the
usual features, which include the
Boldrey Lecture to be
given this year by traumatic brain injury expert
Alex B. Valadka, M.D., FACS,
Professor, Vice-Chair, Research, Department of Neurosurgery, The
University of Texas Medical School at Houston, and the Young
Investigator Research Awards;
Boldrey Award, Newman Award and
Kaiser Award, there
are three mini-symposia. On
Friday, the full day will be dedicated to the spine.
Among others, we will have Dr. Phil Weinstein, UCSF, Professor of
Neurosurgery, speaking on
Lumbar Stenosis: a 30-Year March for the Cure.
Dr. Weinstein will share his rich clinical acumen developed over
the last 30 years as a leading clinician and academician in the field of
spine surgery. Other
speakers of similar caliber will discuss advanced treatment, surgery,
diagnosis and other new
developments related to spinal disorders.
For Saturday, we have scheduled a
mini-symposium on the rapid
new developments in neuroimaging.
Dr. Murray Solomon, a leading neuro-radiologist from the South
Bay, has arranged this very promising and
educational program, which I can assure you, will be an excellent
opportunity for learning about the most advanced available imaging
techniques, such as 3-T MRI
of the brain and spine, and other similarly important topics.
I would like to highlight the lecture to be given by
Dr. Michael Moseley from
Stanford, about the future of MRI of the brain.
It is a real jewel!
The final day will be dedicated to
epilepsy.
A mini-symposium will be led by Dr. David King-Stevens, who has
been at the forefront of
epilepsy management for many years at California Pacific
Medical
Center.
An added feature of this years Annual Meeting will be our first
Neuro-Cinema Festival,
at which participants will have access to presentations and discussions
of movies that relate to neurological illness, and the impact such
movies have on the diagnoses and treatment of
these anomalies.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,
a movie released in 2007 and directed by the acclaimed American artists
and cinematographer Julian Schnabel, was an important triggering factor
for my own decision to
launch this new feature of our Annual Meeting.
An excellent review of this wonderful movie appeared in the March
6, 2008 issue of Neurology Today.
Hopefully the author, neurologist Anne McCammon, MD from
San Diego, will be present to participate in the
discussions.
There are many other important cinematographic works that have been
based on neurologic illnesses.
Dementia has been the topic of several recent movies.
We have chosen Away From Her, whose
director Sarah Polley is a young woman who in my view has provided some
excellent insight into the life of the caregivers and relatives of
people with this devastating disease.
Fortunately our esteemed colleague, Dr. Bruce Miller,
Director of the Memory Clinic at UCSF, is a movie buff,
and is hoping to participate in this discussion. Reviews of this film
adaptation of Alice Munro's short story The Bear Came Over
the Mountain, have appeared in Neurological publications such as
The Lancet
Neurology, Volume 6, Issue 8, Page
675, August 2007
and Neurology Today.
7(12):20,22, June 19, 2007.
I could go on at length about my personal interest in this new event,
but I must recognize that I am somewhat biased, being involved together
with my son in a small documentary film production company.
Fortunately, as I talk with many of the members, there appears to
be lively interest in this, and I am confident that once again this will
be a great Annual Meeting for our Society.
The SF Neurological Society has a new Executive Director
Karen Bertani,
CMP, who also works full time for a large scientific society in
Emeryville, has resigned as Executive Director of the SFNS as the society
has grown and requires more time to manage. The Board of Directors
embarked on a long and diligent search to find a new Executive Director
and is pleased to announce that Amanda Pacia has accepted the position.
The address will remain the same, only the email, phone and fax numbers
have changed. The new Executive Director is:
Amanda Pacia,
Executive Director
San Francisco Neurological Society
2226A Westborough Blvd. #409
South San Francisco, CA 94080
NEW
Phone: 510-685-1187
NEW
Fax: 650-347-4975
E-mail:
apacia@sfneurological.org
Past-President Eric Denys, MD receives UCSF Royer Award for
outstanding contributions to neurology
In February Dr. Eric Denys (Past-President of
the SFNS 2001-2003) officially received the Dr. J. Elliott Royer
Award in Community Neurology from the Dean at UCSF. The
award is given for contributions to the field of Neurology in
research, teaching and community services.
Please visit this link in
UCSF news:
http://medschool.ucsf.edu/news/news/20070919_Royer.aspx
for more information.
Dr. Denys participated in the first
ever plasmapheresis treatment for Myasthenia Gravis and the
Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome at Childrens Hospital in San
Francisco. Dr. Denys is credited to be the first to show
that the Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome could be transferred to
animals, which led to the discovery of immunological mechanisms.
He also played a major role in emphasizing the need for
temperature control in clinical electromyography and improved
diagnostic accuracy. Dr. Denys has made numerous contributions to
research and care of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
(ALS). He continues to be a resource for physicians and
patients in the field of peripheral nerve disorders. He has been
an active member of the SFNS for many years and was President of
the Society from 2001 - 2003.
April 2008 Newsletter
President's Letter
Oscar N. Abeliuk, M.D.,
President,
San Francisco Neurological Society
The San
Francisco Neurological Society will continue to provide a very
friendly atmosphere of fellowship and interaction for physicians
in the neurosciences. A series of dinner meetings throughout
the year will include the latest in diagnosis, treatment and
research in all aspects of neurological and neurosurgical
conditions. This will culminate with our annual meeting, once
again scheduled in
Monterey, this time at the
Casa Munras Hotel,
to take place on
February 27, 28 & March 1, 2009. Again the annual meeting is
evolving to be of the highest caliber. Many of the speakers
are already scheduled and we can expect to pursue discussions and
great opportunities for interaction with those who are experts in
the great variety of topics to be presented. Our goal over
the next year will be to continue on the path set by our most
immediate Past President, Dr. Robyn Young. We will continue
to expand membership locally and open up our meetings to
physicians in the neurosciences from all of California and the
adjoining Western States.
An added feature to the annual meeting will be a
first time Neuro-Cinema Festival in which the public will
have access to presentations and discussions of movies that relate
to neurological illnesses, such as Awakening, My Left Foot,
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Rain Man and
Away From Her along with others.
I personally feel very confident
that this will once again be a great year for the Society. I look
forward to continuing the great tradition of blending academics
and fellowship in an atmosphere of collegiality and friendship.
Sincerely,
Oscar N. Abeliuk, M.D.
Letter from the Past President
Robyn G. Young, M.D.,
President, March 2007-2008, San Francisco Neurological Society
The
San Francisco Neurological Society
embodies a unique blend of academics and fellowship for physicians
in the neurosciences. Our meetings cover broad areas of
interest in the neurosciences, including the latest in research,
diagnostics and in neurological and neurosurgical therapeutics.
All material is presented in an atmosphere of fellowship, with
greater opportunity for interaction than in most medical symposia.
We have a chance to catch up on the research interests and
clinical activities and experiences of our friends and colleagues.
We can freely pursue discussions on directions in research as
well as interesting clinical cases, away from the daily pressures
and imposed distractions of our daily work.
2007 and continuing in 2008 has been
a period of growth and innovation for the San Francisco
Neurological Society. We expanded our database and our
membership, increased programs and tried new locations, and we
held our first 3 day Annual Meeting commemorating our 60th
year @ the Hyatt Regency Monterey, March 14 16, 2008. Guest
lecturers for the 60th Annual Meeting were:
-
The Boldrey Neurosurgical guest
lecture:
Robert Dempsey, MD, Chair N/S, University of Wisconsin,
Rethinking Carotid Atherosclerotic Disease: New Frontiers
from Molecular Biology to the Patient
-
The Neurology guest lecture:
Charles H. Adler, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurology, Mayo
Clinic Scottsdale, AZ,
Dystonia & the YIPS
-
The Saturday evening dinner
speaker: Don Allen, Past District Governor, Rotary
International,
Conquering the Global Epidemic of
Poliomyelitis
The 60th Annual Meeting
Resident/Fellow Research Awards went to:
-
Boldrey Award:
Daniel Lim, MD, NS, UCSF,
Chromatin
Remodeling Factor Mll Specifically Maintains Neurogenesis from
Postnatal Brain Neural Stem Cells
-
Newman Award:
Ellen Mowry, MD, N, MS Center, UCSF,
Multiple Sclerosis Onset Location Predicts
the Location of Subsequent Relapses
-
Kaiser Award:
Jennifer Armstrong-Wells, MD, MPH, N, UCSF,
Prevalence and Predictors of
Perinatal Hemorrhagic Stroke
Dues remained the same and registration costs were kept to a
minimum. As always the Annual Meeting was held in an area of
interest to families and ample time was left for leisure,
including the traditional golf tournament. 2008 golf
winners were:
-
First Place - John Barnes, MD
-
Second Place - Michael McDermott, MD
Photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/rgyoungmd/SFNeurologicalSociety60thAnnualMeeting_314162008_Monterey
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