Toole Elected Head of World Federation of Neurology
WINSTON-SALEM -- Dr. James F. Toole of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has been elected president of the World Federation of Neurology for a four-year term, defeating four other candidates.
The election came during the XVI World Congress of Neurology in Buenos Aires in September. Toole, the Walter C. Teagle Professor of Neurology, takes office on Jan. 1, and his term ends on Dec. 31, 2002.
The four other candidates, from Germany, Austria, India and Australia, had made significant contributions to neurology, but Toole was more widely known around the world.
Toole has played a major role in the World Federation for decades. He served as secretary-treasurer general of the organization from 1981-1989. He has been editor of the Journal of Neurological Sciences since 1989. He also was one of the founders, in 1982, of a newspaper, World Neurology, as a means of communicating with all neurologists.
Toole envisions expanding World Neurology into a global newspaper and establishing a companion telecommunications network addressing scientific, medical and sociopolitical matters of interest to neurologists and to medicine in general.
"I am of the belief that neurologists have a particular advantage and responsibility in this because we have the best understanding of the brain and its functions and malfunctions," he said.
He also plans to develop core curricula on neurology topics that would be distributed to health providers in under-served regions of the world. "The World Federation of Neurology could become an agency for international efforts in the prevention and treatment of neurological disorders and should plan, seek funds for, coordinate and oversee them."
Toole, also professor of public health sciences and director of the stroke center at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, is widely known for his leadership in several national studies involving stroke prevention.
One such study, the Asymtomatic Carotid Atherosclerosis Study (ACAS), involved 39 North American medical centers and determined that surgery is significantly better than aspirin and risk reduction in preventing strokes in patients with hardening of the arteries but no outward symptoms. The results were considered so convincing that the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke sent a special clinical advisory to all doctors and called a national news conference in 1994 to announce the results, with Toole presenting the findings.
He now heads another national study, including 36 centers, to determine whether adding vitamins to the diet of people who already have had a stroke can prevent recurrence. That study is under way.
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For further information, contact Robert Conn, Mark Wright or Jim Steele at 910-716-4587.
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