International Coordination of Anthroposophic medicine / IKAM
Report on activities 2008 – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
Medical Section
Goetheanum
Whoever wishes to perceive God, must will God – will
Whoever is to perceive the Logos must feel the Logos – love
Whoever is to perceive the spirit must think the spirit – light
Whoever wishes to enhance the human being must find fire – fire
Rudolf Steiner, notebook entry, GA 268, p. 127
Contents
Dear friends of our work
Excerpts from lectures at the 2008 annual conference
Preview of the international congress / annual conference
Impressions of the 1st World Conference for Eurythmy Therapy 2008
Medical Section conferences
International coordination of anthroposophic medicine / IKAM
International postgraduate medical training / IPMT
Report on activities by the Section director
Financial situation
Medical Section newsletter
ELIANT in word and image
Our thanks to
Software AG foundation, Mahle foundation,
Evidenzgesellschaft, Dr. Hauschka foundation,
Iona foundation, GTS sponsor fund, the support association
for anthroposophic medicine, Helixor foundation,
Humanus-Haus foundation, Marthashofen foundation,
Donata foundation, the eurythmy therapy support foundation
and many other small foundations, the medicines producers
Weleda, Wala and Helixor, numerous institutions, associations
and alliances and, finally, the many friends both near and
far whose accompanying thoughts, collaboration
and financial contributions have made
our work possible at the
Medical Section.
2
Report on activities 2008 – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
Imprint
Published by
The Medical Section at the Goetheanum
Editorial board
Michaela Glöckler, MD
Heike Sommer MA
Typesetting and layout
Heike Sommer MA
Ordering address
Medizinische Sektion am Goetheanum
Postfach
CH-4143 Dornach 1, Switzerland
Fax 0041 61 706 44 91
email: [email protected]
Picture credits
Title page, Rudolf Steiner, Druids’
Stone; R. Steiner estate administrators
2008
Page 5, R. Steiner Verlag / Kulturimpuls
research center
Dear friends of our work
As an extremely intense year of work reaches it end, we are pleased to be able to offer you this report on our activities. It gives a glimpse
into many diverse areas of work and highlights aspects of the current state of anthroposophic medicine and its development. More
can be found on our website at www.medsektion-goetheanum.ch . The focus of our work in 2008 was the question of the identity of
anthroposophic medicine and its therapies. On the one hand this identity is rooted in anthroposophy’s spiritual approach to knowledge,
and on the other it is also embedded in the modern scientific medicine which prevails today. As a consequence of this view of its task,
anthroposophic medicine now faces the greatest challenges in respect of its future. The hospital – as original starting point and surety
of its development so far – will soon no longer exist in the current form. In its place will come the intensive-care hospital with associated
care centers, specialist medical practices and rehab and palliative medical provision, each with their own specific domains of activity. We
have to keep in step with these developments, and in particular create the research and training facilities necessary for them.
This view of ourselves also however conceals new opportunities for anthroposophic medicine, with its specifically spiritual orientation, to
provide help and clarity when an overview is needed of the wide range of complementary methods available today.
Steiner’s medical and educational paradigm of the identity between thinking activity and the growth and regeneration capacity of living
organisms offers a path of knowledge in which physicians and therapists can find confirmation of the evidence provided through their
own spiritual capacities. At the same time, however, anthroposophic schooling of thinking also offers us the chance to better understand
diverse systems of medicine, and thus also to draw on them in a surer and more effective way. In this way anthroposophic medicine can
also help contribute to good medical practice overall. Repeatedly finding this opportunity in discussions with colleagues from the most
varied schools of therapy is one of the most satisfying experiences of my life as a doctor, but also of my work for the Medical Section.
What is the nature of a medicine that really does justice to and takes account of the human individual? Isn’t the identity of a school of
therapy also determined by what it expects of the human being or how it assesses the human being’s capacity for development and the
way in which it can support and help him? Paracelsus knew that there are five ways to fall ill: from external physical causes, from insufficient self-healing capacity, from the soul’s lack of potential to compensate, from too weak an “I” presence or activity; and finally, from
social contexts which today are so often decisive for health and illness, and in which the individual falls ill. The identity of anthroposophic
medicine reveals itself most consistently and effectively at the moment of encounter between physician/therapist and patient, in an
intuitive grasp of the particular way in which an illness began and how we can counter this process – with the help of specific medicinal
substances, artistic and biographical remedies or also through the strengthening of the capacity to relate to oneself and one’s surroundings.
With the best wishes for Christmas and for work in 2009
- also on behalf of my colleagues -
Your
Michaela Glöckler
Director of the Medical Section
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
3
Excerpts from lectures at the 2008 annual conference on the identity
of anthroposophic medicine / AM
Roland Bersdorf: Anthroposophic medicine in intensive care
Throughout the world the past ten years have seen the abolition of per diem hospital charges and the introduction of flat-rate charges per case. When they were paid per diem, clinics were also paid for the TIME factor,
which was beneficial for AM. In the new, flat-rate system, a high degree of significance is accorded to the
severity of an illness. In Germany, in the current catalog version, the ‘Diagnosis Related Groups’ (DRGs) define
possible illnesses divided into 1,089 diagnoses, each with at least two different ratings relating to secondary
or concomitant disorders. German clinics therefore base their calculations on around 2,500 different prices.
This poses the following question for AM clinics: What service do we offer and at what point do we intervene
in the course of an illness and its cure? If a patient first undergoes surgery for carcinoma of the pancreas in
a mainstream clinic and, following conclusion of this treatment, then comes to us, this patient will still need
many therapeutic applications and much time and attention. We however only receive payment governed
by the assessment factor 0.6, whereas the in-patient surgery can be calculated based on the factor 4.6. The
less invasive our interventions, the less funding we attract. Apart from the financial effect of this on our clinics,
from the patient’s point of view the question also arises of our overall treatment capacities. If a cancer
patient – and thus someone in a profound life crisis who has many questions and fears – decides
on treatment in an AM clinic, yet this clinic must first refer him to a suitable specialist clinic, this will
not correspond to our patient’s wishes. In future we are required to develop our service profile as clinics in
logical correspondence to the needs of our patients. This demands additional specialist qualification as well
as proper provision of technical medical facilities and adequate premises. We do not offer medical treatment
for our own benefit, but for that of patients. The positive response of our patients encourages us to pursue
the aim of making AM available to as many people as possible. With a market share of 0.25%, we have not yet
achieved this aim! (more at: www.medsektion-goetheanum.ch)
Jaap Sijmons: Patientenrechte und Anthroposophische Medizin / AM
To understand the legal situation of AM we can refer to Professor Zuck’s publication “Das Recht
der anthroposophischen Medizin” (“The law governing AM”, Nomos, 2007).
Under Dutch law, therapeutic freedom means independence from absolutely everything that does
not belong to medicine, but not independence from science. Neither money nor the patient’s
social context/class should affect treatment, but only scientific medical considerations. This is the
meaning of ‘therapeutic freedom’: the physician takes responsibility before his conscience for treatment that abides by professional standards (par. 1.1. BÄO). The physician’s free scope relates, among
other things, to an application in an individual situation that is not envisaged in the general rules/
regulations. In other words the physician has a certain freedom in the application of various rational
therapies, but is still subject to the control of disciplinary law, monitoring by the health insurers and the
continual threat of liability law (and thus, ultimately, is subject to monitoring by the patient himself).
Academic associations of doctors and specialists accordingly set standards, issue guidelines and recommendations , and convey state-of-the-art knowledge. We shouldn’t sink under the weight of
all this. Therapeutic freedom as such is a very limited freedom for action. Academic or scientific freedom gives more scope. This is why I do not advise establishing AM as ‘complementary
medicine’, as if it were complementary to science. One does the right thing by it, and creates its
future, by seeing it as the science of complementary factors (in relation to health): in other words
as a medicine that works with the complementarities, with the real polarities in the human being.
This is also why AM finds it hard to establish itself - because the committees which make decisions about
recognition for health-insurance purposes (such as the Joint Federal Committee) are permitted to ask
whether a therapy is sufficiently underpinned by scientific results. I’m referring here to the debate about
evidence-based medicine. The cross-border, international market in industrially manufactured medicines
was what gave rise back in the 50s to testing of the safety and efficacy of medicines upon entry to the
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Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
market. Under the EC ‘Antroposana judgment’ there is as yet no room for special national regulations
governing anthroposophic remedies. The community codex needs changing, and the quickest way
to do this would be for the APC to be adopted into the European pharmacopeia. Individual remedies
might be allowed permits via the ‘well-established use’ criterion. www.medsektion-goetheanum.ch
Michaela Glöckler: Anthroposophic medicine / AM in the 7 times 12 years of its development
The anthroposophic medical movement’s annual conference pursued the theme of identity also in
relation to its own history, and in the context of the various leaders of the Medical Section at the
Goetheanum. Where do we stand today? What will motivate our work in forthcoming years?
Ita Wegman * 1876 – 1943
1924
Inauguration by Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman, who set out the task of “developing the medical system of anthroposophy” at the 1923/24 Christmas Foundation Meeting. After Steiner’s death,
social conflicts and tests of endurance cause upheaval in AM’s further development.
Leadership: Ita Wegman, from 1924 to 1935
Leadership by an interim council: Friedrich Husemann
Walter Bopp / Hans Zbinden / Richard Schubert from 1935 to 1955
1936
Ita Wegman undertakes travel and clinical work in Arlesheim and Ascona
AM in Europe spreads further, also becoming more peripheral.
Rudolf Steiner * 1861 – 1925
1948
Efforts at social integration by various initiatives and groups
Leadership by an interim council: Margarete Kirchner-Bockholt / Madeleine van Deventer / Hans Bleiker /
Gerhard Schmidt, from 1955 to 1963
1960
Creation of identity and collaboration within AM professional group movements
Leadership: Margarete Kirchner-Bockholt from 1963 to 1969
Collegium: Madeleine van Deventer / Walter Holtzapfel / Hans Bleiker
Leadership: Walter Holtzapfel from 1969 to 1977
Council: Herbert Sieweke / Georg Gräflin / Hellmut Klimm
1972
Institutionalization and bureaucratization / legal safeguards for AM in Germany
Leadership: Friedrich Lorenz from 1977 to 1986
Council: Walter Holtapfel / Hellmut Klimm / Herbert Sieweke
1984
Scientific legitimization and documentation of AM,
development of internationally sustaining social structures
Interim leadership: Manfred Schmidt-Brabant 1986 – 1987
The council of the medical Section is disbanded by the GAS
Leadership from 1988 Michaela Glöckler
1996
Globalization of anthroposophic medicine, start of EU-wide and international legitimization processes, work on a specifically anthroposophic pharmaceutical codex /
APC, establishment of EKAM then IKAM / European or International coordination of AM
2008
Giving the identity of anthroposophic medicine both a more academic and more popular
footing, i.e. rendering it accessible throughout the world, in training and practice
Margarete Kirchner-Bockholt * 1994 – 1973
Walter Holzapfel *1912 – 1994
Friedrich Lorenz * 1911 – 1987
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
5
Preview of the international congress / annual conference 2009
Oncology
in anthroposophic medicine
Spiritual, artistic/psychological and medicinal paths in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer
September 17 –20 September 2009 Medical Section
Goetheanum
The aim of the conference is to characterize the current state of anthroposophic oncology and to
discuss further questions relating to practice. We will discuss the various mistletoe preparations,
their constituents and forms of application; also supporting therapies in the form of eurythmy
therapy, artistic therapy, anthroposophic psychotherapy and biography work, including pastoral
medical aspects and the development of patient competency.
Our considerations will also focus on prevention, salutogenesis and a spiritual understanding
of the nature of cancer. The results of mistletoe research will be discussed in forums and poster
presentations; the manufacturers of mistletoe preparations are invited to exhibit and discuss
their product ranges.
A particularly important aspect of this theme, in our view, is interdisciplinary collaboration amongst
the different profession groups involved with cancer. All who are interested in anthroposophic
oncology are invited.
6
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
Conferences and meetings
The work of conference organization at the Medical Section involves linking up preparation of the
content of conferences with their realization in the printed program, mailing, and local logistics at the
Goetheanum. In 2008 around 55 conferences were either organized or co-organized by the Section.
The biggest challenge here was the First World Conference for Eurythmy Therapy. Around 800 people
attended - half of all eurythmy therapists currently practicing in the world - thus exceeding all expectations. With 140 speakers, 7 stage eurythmy groups and over 80 working groups, the challenges
were immense. We are still reflecting with much gratitude on the success of this very colourful, wideranging conference.
I would particularly like to thank the maintenance department here, as representative of all the many
helping hands behind the scenes of our conferences at the Goetheanum, and also those responsible
for organizing preparation of the conference who maintain year-round continuity in all the small arrangements. Without them the logistical network could not work, nor could
Conferences 2008 (as at November 30 2008)
Roland Tüscher
Conference management
Tel. +41 61 706 42 93
[email protected]
Conferences 2008 (as at November 30 2008)
Total (in SF)
Materials costs
Fees
Travel / accommodation /
meals
Administration
Total costs
Conf. income
Support and
donations
Balance
-115'110.00
-102'730.00
-264'400.00
-111'600.00
-593'840.00
423'620.00
192'710.00
22'490.00
Conferences at the Goetheanum
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
7
Impressions of the First World Conference for Eurythmy Therapy
Substance, transformation and process: impressions of the First World Conference for Eurythmy Therapy
780 eurythmy therapists and physicians from 33 countries celebrated a festival of international
encounter and engagement with specific issues relating to eurythmy therapy.
In over 80 working groups participants discussed professional issues and learned from one another. Decisions were made to implement international, cross-border exchange, including intensification of collaboration in individual fields of practice as quality development impulse.
The presentations and reports by respective national representatives from 28 interlinked countries were impressive. Increasingly these representatives are becoming the organ of communication between the center and periphery. The strengthening of each individual through overall
cohesion and exchange was a tangible experience, awakening courage and hope for eurythmy
therapy’s further development. In terms of content it became clear that, on the one hand, the
professional profile of eurythmy therapy as a therapy of anthroposophic medicine must be further developed in collaboration with doctors in all health systems. On the other, it was also clear
that basic work on the speech sounds and their differentiated effect on specific illnesses requires
further research. Many issues arose from this for further work in each country.
Alongside concentrated content-related study and work, the following were described in feedback sessions as special highlights: the Foundation Stone verse performed in eurythmy in 6 different languages – brought as “gift” for the whole professional community; the performance of the
12 moods and satires at the beginning and end of the conference, staged by Ursula Zimmermann
and Michael Leber; and the eurythmy performance with a stage-set in plant-colours, devised by
Thomas Sutter with the collaboration of various Dornach ensembles.
Meetings of colleagues from the very first eurythmy therapy training courses in Vienna, Dornach
and England.
First encounters of colleagues from various countries at the world conference in Dornach.
The conference was blessed with a cheerful, warm, open mood of work, creating an awareness of
the content and profile of eurythmy therapy throughout the world.
Participants would like to hold the next world conference in five to seven years.
Angelika Jaschke
International coordination
Erika Leiste and Michaela Glöckler
at the 2008 world eurythmy therapy conference
8
Preparatory group for the world eurythmy therapy conference in the conference room at the Goetheanum
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
Medical Section conferences and meetings 2009
January 3 09
January 3-5 09
January 4-5 09
January 4 09
January 6-7 09
January 7 09
January 8-11 09
January 9 09
January 9-11 09
January 8-15 09
January 12-19 09
January 21-28 09
January 30-31 09
January 30 – February 1 09
IKAM1 profession coordinators conference
European academy for artistic therapy
DAKART2
DAKART and EA3
Artistic therapy tutors conference
School of Spiritual Science meeting for artistic therapists
International working days for artistic therapy
Artistic therapy network group
Meeting of medical students on the theme of anthroposophic medical training
Eye eurythmy therapy training course
IPMT4 further training week for doctors / Santiago, Chile
IPMT further training week for doctors / Bangalore, India
Speech therapy preparation
IKAM winter conclave
February 13-15 09
February 14-15 09
February 25-March 1 09
Student conference “Health and the human being” in collaboration with the Youth Section
School of Spiritual Science study: Chapter 20 of GA 27
Conference for doctors working in curative education and social therapy
March 7-14 09
March 16-21 09
March 19 09
March 19-22 09
March 25 09
Medical study course
Medical study week at the Goetheanum
Preparation for the international physiotherapy conference
International conference for anthroposophic physiotherapy
Preparation for the research colloquium (by invitation)
Second discussion on the prospects for anthroposophic medical research
Doctors’ Easter conference / by invitation
May 8-15 09
May 15-17 09
June 4-6 09
IPMT further training week for doctors / California, USA
Conference on ‘compulsive hoarding’ syndrome
The compulsive hoarding syndrome: basic seminar for those affected
June 18-21 09
June/July 09
June 28-July 5 09
Pastoral medical conference
IPMT further training week for doctors / Irkutsk, Siberia
IPMT further training week for doctors / Odessa, Ukraine
July 1-3 09
July 09
July 18-20 09
July 23-30 09
Eurythmy therapy further training course
IPMT further training course for doctors / Cuba
The compulsive hoarding phenomenon: further training for carers and therapists
IPMT further training week for doctors / Sydney, Australia
August 1-8 09
August 23-30 09
August 28 – September 5 09
August 28-30 09
IPMT further training week for doctors / St. Petersburg, Russia
IPMT further training week for Polish doctors and advanced colleagues from other countris /
Dornach, Switzerland
Eye eurythmy therapy training course
The compulsive hoarding phenomenon: basic seminar for those affected
1
2
3
4
International coordination of anthroposophic medicine
Executive councils of professional associations for artistic therapy
European Academy for anthroposophic art therapy
International Postgraduate Medical Training
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
9
September 5-12 09
September 13-17 09
September 14 09
September 14-16 09
September 15-16 09
September 16 09
September 16 09
September 17 09
September 17-20 09
September 20-21 09
September 21-27 09
Medical study course
Pre-conferences prior to the annual conference
International association of anthroposophic medical associations IVAA5 meeting of delegates from national executive councils
Meeting of students and trainees / reservation
Conference of the executive councils of medical associations
Conference of medicines producers and medical associations
Conference for School of Spiritual Science members
Conference of medicines producers and medical associations
International annual conference: Oncology in anthroposophic medicine
Meetings accompanying the Medical Section’s annual conference:
medical training tutors’ conference; conference for training, and further and advanced training in nursing; working group of trainers in rhythmic Einreibung; trainer group for rhythmic massage; international forum for
anthroposophic nursing; international delegates’ conference for eurythmy
therapy; community of anthroposophic medical practitioners members’
meeting (AGAHP); working group for freelancers in anthroposophic nursing;
DAKART; DAMID6 ; EFPAM7 board meeting; EFPAM annual general meeting;
EFPAM Round Table; artistic therapy preparation meeting for 2010;
International Research Council; opportunities for IPMT mentors and
trainees to meet
IKAM meeting
PMT further training week for doctors / Nagano, Japan
October 12-17 09
October 22-25 09
October 30 – November 1 09
October 31 – November 1 09
November 1-4 09
November 11 09
November 11 09
November 12-15 09
Medical study week
Speech therapy conference
The compulsive hoarding phenomenon: further training for carers and therapists
Intensive seminar for school doctors
Conference for school doctors / support and remedial teachers’ conference
IKAM fall conclave
Preparation of the doctors’ conference at the Halde
Doctors’ conference at the Halde
Earmarked for 2009
School of Spiritual Science conference for nurses
Preview of 2010
March 11-14 2010
March 8-13 2010
March 13-20 2010
June 2-5 2010
July 1-3 2010
September 4-11 2010
September 17-20 2010
October 18-23 2010
Colloque Medicale – doctors’ conference in French
Medical workweek
Medical study course
Conference on baby-care and development
Eurythmy therapy further training course
Medical study course
International annual conference
Medical workweek
5
6
7
10
International Association of Anthroposophic Physicians
Umbrella association for anthroposophic medicine in Germany
European Federation of Patients’ Associations for Anthroposophic Medicine
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
International Coordination of Anthroposophic Medicine / IKAM
The International Coordination of Anthroposophic Medicine / IKAM is a forum where the representatives of profession groups and specialist fields in anthroposophic medicine (AM) work together on an
international basis. In other words, not only the umbrella organizations for physicians, manufacturers
and consumers (patients) sit together here at one table, but also the representatives of the different
anthroposophic forms of therapy through to curative education and social therapy. Since each individual in this coordination group has decision-making powers in his own field or within his own
association, this committee has a core leadership function for the AM movement. The annual theme
for the AM movement is agreed here, as are strategic questions whose effects on the overall situation
are discussed in the coordinator group. By this means not only does a common interdisciplinary awareness develop of the current state of the anthroposophic medical movement, together with outlooks
for further development, but it is also possible for the whole group to address the specific concerns
and questions of an individual in a concentrated and supportive way. For example, in 2007/2008, we
discussed the concerns of anthroposophic clinics with Roland Behrsdorf and Andreas Jäschke, which
led to the theme of last year’s annual conference (see p. 4 and 5).
Below the IKAM coordinators report on their fields of work and their profession groups. Two strategic
internal meetings are planned for the coming year, in January and September, as well as a meeting for
developing the next annual theme, and one on the theme of representing AM in the public domain, in
collaboration with the umbrella association for anthroposophic medicine in Germany / DAMID.
As far as funding is concerned for the coordination work in the different professional fields, which can
be expensive, we have already succeeded in covering the staffing costs for 2008 (which was not possible in 2007) from professional associations and individual donations. For this we very warmly thank
all those involved.
For 2009 and 2010 the planned annual theme is oncology and rheumatology in AM. Here we will focus
on the contribution which anthroposophically-oriented treatment makes not only to diagnosis and
therapy but also in the field of prevention, salutogenesis and pro-active ways of promoting patient
competency in relation to these clinical pictures.
IKAM internal meeting at
Odilienberg, January 2008
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
11
The international medical coordination of anthroposophic medicines / IMKA
The field of “international medical coordination of medicines” established itself more strongly in 2008 as
an autonomous area of work within the Medical Section. Its main task is to coordinate the work and
collaboration of anthroposophic physicians across the world in relation to anthroposophic medicines.
Georg Soldner, pediatrician, Munich
IMKA coordination
Executive council member of the
GAÄD
(Society of anthroposophic doctors in Germany)
[email protected]
IMKA’s most important task is to compile and publish the knowledge of anthroposophic physicians in relation to indications, application, efficacy and possible side effects of anthroposophic medicines. The Vademecum project serves this aim, publishing contributions in a form which facilitates continual growth
of knowledge, and critique or increasing consolidation of the current state of knowledge through corresponding reports from doctors. It also makes available relevant specialist literature relating to specific
medicines. The first German-language edition appeared in February with a print-run of 41,800 copies.
Translation is currently underway into Italian, English and French. The English and French translations are
due to appear this year (2009), and the French edition in 2010. At the same time there are already plans for
a second, expanded and improved German edition in 2011. Please send us further experiential reports on
anthroposophic medicines! The report sheet can be downloaded from, among other places, the website
at www.gaed.de/vademecum and www.merkurstab.de/vademecum
Another task of IMKA is to ensure, through discussions with anthroposophic medicines manufacturers,
an adequate supply of anthroposophic medicines to anthroposophic doctors throughout the world.
In September 2008, a discussion took place in Dornach in this context between representatives from
around 30 medical associations and representatives of medicines’ producers. This revealed the big problems involved in ensuring worldwide supply of medicines to patients. Since the whole range of these
medicines can only be kept on the market in a few European countries, and regulatory expenditure
relating to import by other countries is continually increasing, international dispatch of these medicines
from manufacturing countries is gaining ever greater significance.
In the next two years IMKA will be led by the Swiss physician Dr. Andreas Arendt, executive council
member of the IVAA, and also still by Georg Soldner, executive council member of the German
anthroposophic medical association. The corresponding mandate for this was expressly confirmed by
the international conference of executive councils of anthroposophic medical associations and the IVAA
annual general meeting. Georg Soldner
Anthroposophic Medicinal Products, Development 2008
Until autumn, 2008 was a rather uneventful year with regard to legislation or court decisions.
Then on October 3rd, news came from the Netherlands. In the proceedings for initial legal protection
between the Dutch Ministry of Health and Antroposana (alliance of patients, doctors and manufacturers)
the committee of judges, the Hoge Raad, had submitted some initial questions to the European Court
of Justice (ECJ) in January 2006. In his reply in September 2007, the ECJ decided: “Anthroposophic
medicinal products may be marketed only on condition that they have been authorised under one of
the procedures referred to in Directive 2001/83EC”. Taking this into consideration, the pending legal
proceedings in the Netherlands continued. In the above mentioned appeal, although Antroposana
had been successful in two instances before, the Attorney general has now recommended to dismiss
the claim. He refers to the ECJ judgement and is of the opinion that the products should not enjoy
initial legal protection, even until a court decision is taken in the basic procedure. In case the Hoge
Raad follows this recommendation, pharmacies in the Netherlands would no longer be allowed to
have the anthroposophic medicinal products in question on stock. The committee of judges is not
obliged to follow the proposal, but in general there is hardly a chance for a different judgement.
Christa Hebisch
Wala Heilmittel GmbH
ECHAMP vice-president, Wala director
for interests representation/legal issues
[email protected]
12
A few days earlier the European Commission had published the final report on the experience acquired
with herbal medicinal products. The Commission had the task to submit a report concerning the
application of the provisions on a simplified registration procedure for traditional herbal medicinal
products. The report should include an assessment on a possible extension of the traditional use
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
regulations to other categories of medicinal products. Proposals for an extension of the Directive that
would offer concrete possibilities for anthroposophic medicinal products are not foreseen. However,
the Commission acknowledges anthroposophic medicine as a therapeutic approach with a European tradition and mentions the APC (Anthroposophic Pharmaceutical Codex) as well as the International association of Anthroposophic Pharmacists (IAAP). Finally the Commission adds that a Directive
relating to medicinal products cannot be a suitable tool for the regulation of a holistic therapeutic
approach like anthroposophic medicine. Though the necessity remains unspoken, this demonstrates
that the Commission regards a specific and comprehensive regulation as appropriate.
In the Netherlands, this new point of view can be introduced into the running court proceeding by
Antroposana. Besides that, Antroposana seeks legal protection on the basis of The European Convention on human Rights, thus creating an enlarged perspective for the evaluation of the dispute. The
Hoge Raad would have the possibility to pose new questions to the ECJ, e.g. whether the medicinal
products could be tolerated without a legal basis until such a regulation is issued and/or whether
protection on the basis of the European Convention on human Rights has to be granted. A judicial
decision on further action or a judgement is expected for January 9th, 2009.
Details about the background
and course of court proceedings
in Holland can be found in the
2006 and 2007 annual reports,
and also at www.medsektiongoetheanum.org (IKAM)
Outside this court case Antroposana takes efforts to find an arrangement with the responsible Dutch
authorities that enables doctors and pharmacists to secure the supply of patients.
Details on the background and the court proceedings in the Netherlands can be found in the report
on activities 2006 and 2007 as well as under www.medsektion-goetheanum.org (IKAM).
Christa Hebisch
Coordination of medicines producers / AEFMUTA
A review of 2008 shows clearly that anthroposophic medicines regularly feature in EU publications and
events, although they are still a long way from being accorded the place due to them – either in legislation or in the regulatory environment. Thus the EUC judgment of September 2007 also appears as a signal
to decision-making bodies that there is a need for regulation in this domain. In March, at the EMEA Herbal
Committee (HMPC) in London, a workshop was held on anthroposophic medicine at which current book
publications such as the Vademecum and Anthroposophic Medicine, Swiss HTA, and extensive documentation were distributed. The EMEA minutes of this information event are documented on the EMEA
website (www.emea.europa.eu). A direct result of this event is the appointment of Dr. Giancarlo Cimino
as expert for anthroposophic medicine to the HMPC monograph working party (MLWP).
In relation to evaluation of the Herbal Traditional Use guideline, the Commission’s final protocol is now
also available (www.ec.europa.eu). Here too, anthroposophic medicines are frequently mentioned
and there is a direct e-link to the Anthroposophic Pharmaceutical Codex.
Patrick Sirdey
Mitglied der Weleda Geschäftsleitung,
Präsident der AEFMUTA
Association Européenne
des Fabricants de Médicaments
utilisés en Thérapeutique Anthroposophique
[email protected]
In December the associations are invited to organize another workshop, this time for the twice-annual meeting of the 27 national medicines authorities responsible for homeopathic and anthroposophic medicines. The 90-minute workshop entitled ‘Anthroposophic Use’ will take place in Paris on December 18. The working group HMPWG – Homeopathic Medicinal Products Working Party – which
invited us, is under the auspices of the HMA (Heads of Medicines Agencies) and has been chaired by
Emiel van Galen since November 2007.
During 2008 AEFMUTA has also co-supported a number of legal publications – some of them in
English – by Professors Zander and Zuck. Also pleasing is a recent article by Dr. Werne Knöss (BfArM)
which appeared in July in the journal for ‘Federal health research and health assurance’. Although our
operational activity is somewhat restricted due to our good collaboration with other associations
(ECHAMP, IVAA, IAAP and EFPAM) and in the steering committee, we have been able to waken the
interest of important decision-making bodies at European level through specific initiatives on behalf
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
Nand De Herdt
Präsident von ECHAMP
[email protected]
www.echamp.org
13
of anthroposophic medicines. Hopefully they will also quickly set about taking legislative initiatives.
The second decade of the 21st century will be decisive in these matters.
Nand de Herdt
Report of the International Association of Anthroposophic Pharmacists / IAAP
Political activities
In its “Report on experiences arising from section 2a of guideline 2001/83/EC in the guideline’s
version 2004/24/EC in relation to regulations applicable to certain traditional herbal remedies”
(http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0584:FIN:DE:PDF) the EU Commission has recognized anthroposophic medicine as European school of therapy. As substantiating literature the EU Commission cited the IAAP’s APC, thus showing that this is an important document for the further development of anthroposophic medicine. The IAAP is working
jointly with other affected anthroposophic associations on further steps arising from the report.
Dr. Manfred Kohlhase
President of the IAAP
Staff member of Weleda AG /
advanced training in anthroposophic
pharmacy
[email protected]
GAPID / Society of Anthroposophic
Pharmacists in Germany
Advanced training
The GAPiD’s IWO forms the basis for the planned international framework guideline for advanced
training to become an anthroposophic pharmacist. At the annual conference of the anthroposophic
medical movement in September 2008, an IAAP working group (Herwig Judex, Manfred Kohlhase,
Albert Schmidt) presented a draft to colleagues from participating pharmacy associations. Here it
became clear that there are big regional differences in academic pharmaceutical training, and thus
there is also no unified qualification for the profession of pharmacist. It is therefore not possible to
create an international professional designation of ‘anthroposophic pharmacist’. The task of national
anthroposophic pharmacy associations will in consequence be to establish an appropriate training
course in each respective country, that adheres to the framework guidelines and is certified by the
IAAP. It would also be conceivable to have an ‘anthroposophic pharmacist(IAAP)’ qualification issued
centrally either from the Medical Section or the IAAP.
Publicity work
On March 6 2008, the IAAP received very positive attention from EMEA in Brussels and London.
EMEA is the European medicines authority. Jointly with representatives of anthroposophic medicines producers and physicians, the IAAP participated in a 4-hour workshop on anthroposophic
medicine, helping to increase understanding and acceptance of anthroposophic medicine and its
medicaments. The EMEA published a report on this session (http://emea.europa.eu/pdfs/human/
hmpc/14756508en.pdf ).
Manfred Kohlhase
From the work of the IVAA
The main emphasis of the IVAA’s work is in representing anthroposophic medicine in the legal
and political domain. In this task the IVAA occupies a coordinating role within IKAM. As autonomous
legal entity it continues to regard itself as an umbrella association of anthroposophic medical
associations worldwide.
Peter Zimmermann MD
President of the IVAA / International
Association of Anthroposophic Medical Associations
[email protected]
www.ivaa.info.de
14
As in previous years, the work extends to attending important EU Commission events, holding
discussions with politicians and Commission officials, and consultations on proposals from various
EU directorate generals. So far this year reports have been drawn up in response to 6 consultation
procedures, and these canall be viewed on the IVAA website at www.ivaa.info and now also at
www.ivaa.eu.
The IVAA participated in an EMEA (European Medical Agency) workshop at which anthroposophic medicine was presented to members of the HMPC (Herbal Medical Product Committee) in a
3-hour meeting; cf. http://www.emea.europa.eu/htms/human/hmpc/hmcpinterestedpart.htm
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
A pleasing result of this workshop was that in May of this year Dr. Giancarlo Cimino, an anthroposophic doctor in Italy, became the first anthroposophic doctor in the history of the European
Union to be elected to a European Union committee. He thus became a member of the HMPC
working party (HMPC= Herbal Medical Product Committee) on drafting herbal monographs.
Peter Zimmermann
Clinic associations coordination
The main focus of the work of the clinics association and of the Anthromed GmbH charitable organization, under which name it was registered on November 26 2007 with the Swiss copyright institute
in the latter’s list of brands, has been to work on the identity and quality of anthroposophic medicine
in clinics. What particularly distinguishes anthroposophic clinics? How can this be expressed in the
international context? What criteria need to be met to ensure that a hospital may bear the Anthromed trademark? What forms of collaboration are required to help new clinic initiatives create the
necessary conditions for affiliating with the new GmbH (plc)? It is interesting that more recently, in
particular, increasing enquiries have come from outside Europe.
Development of the Anthromed trademark as new quality seal for anthroposophic medicine in
clinics is linked with the clinics integration process initiated in Järna back in 2003 by the association
of anthroposophic clinics, and the primary fields for a strategic alliance agreed in May 2004. The process of creating a trademark was agreed from the beginning with the Medical Section and IKAM.
Roland Bersdorf
Research coordination
In 2008, active research work was once again driven forward intensively, and widely published. An
overview of scientific publications on anthroposophic medicine is updated annually and can be
found on various websites (e.g. www.ivaa.info) A medline database search on publications with
thematic emphases relating to anthroposophic medicine and mistletoe therapy threw up over 60
medline-listed publications alone.
Detailed information on anthroposophic medical research can be found on the website of research
institutes: Carl Gustav Carus Institute. Research for cancer therapy, Niefern-Öschelbronn/DE,
www.carus-institut.de; Filderklinik, Filderstadt-Bonlanden/DE, www.filderklinik.de
Berlin research institute/Havelhöhe, Harald Mathes MD, Berlin/DE, www.fih-berlin.de
Institute for applied epistemology and medical methodology (IFAEMM), Helmut Kiene MD,
Bad Krozingen/DE, www.ifaemm.de; Louis Bolk Institute, Driebergen/NL, www.louisbolk.nl
Medical Section at the Goetheanum and international coordination of anthroposophic medicine/IKAM,
Goetheanum, Dornach/CH, www.medsektion-goetheanum.ch
Paracelsus-Spital Richterswil, Richterswil/CH, www.paracelsus-spital.ch
University of Bern, collegiate body for complementary medicine: Imhoof-Pavillon, Bern/CH,
www.kikom.unibe.ch
Prof. Peter F. Matthiesson MD, chair of medical theory and complementary medicine,
University of Witten/Herdecke, www.uni-wh.de
Hiscia Institute, Arlesheim/CH, www.hiscia.ch
Competency initiative, www.kompetenzinitiative.de,
Research institute at the Goetheanum, www.forschungsinstitut.ch.
Helmut Kiene
Roland Bersdorf MD
Manager of Havelhöhe district hospital
Executive board member of the association of anthroposophic clinics
[email protected]
Helmut Kiene MD
Member of the research executive board ; IFAEMM, Institute for
applied epistemology/medical
methodology
Professor Peter Matthiessen MD
Witten-Herdecke University
International Research Council
Member of the research executive board
www.uni-wh.de
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
15
Curative education and social therapy
Conference for curative education and social therapy
The international conference for curative education and social therapy met in October for its annual
internal meeting, and discussed current questions relating to the international network. These include
training issues, processes of social and political change, and the structuring of organizations and social
organisms in which the methods of anthroposophic curative education and social therapy can be
made effective in authentic and innovative ways. Representatives from over 40 countries, and from
the conference’s ongoing working groups, work together in the conference for curative education and
social therapy:
Rüdiger Grimm, D.Phil
Secretary of the conference for curative education and social therapy
[email protected]
www.khsdornach.org
Conferences
Around 750 people attended the international conference for curative education and social therapy,
which takes place at the Goetheanum every two years. It focused on the theme of “Scope for… initiative, responsibility and collaboration” and thus tackled one of the core issues for the profession’s current
situation. At The Hague, the fourth conference in the series “Living in encounter – conferences for people living with a disability” took place, on the theme of “Changing tides”. This too was attended by over
700 people. The theme of the 13th conference in the “Healing and educating” series was “Biography
and life worlds”. This series brings together representatives from education, special needs education
and medicine in fruitful dialog. Last but not least: the music and art festival at Sondershausen district
music academy in Thüringen, was a special event co-supported by the conference for curative education and social therapy, and attended by 350 people both with and without disabilities. Together they
spent three days making music, performing drama and participating in artistic and study workshops.
Training
In the field of curative education and social therapy, the domain of training has been subject to continual change for years. This is due to some massive changes in legal requirements in different regions
on the one hand, and on the other to the genuine need for further development of our training competency at training centers – in relation to changes in the profession profile and generational developments. The international training conference therefore placed its main emphasis on the practicerelevance of training courses.
Publications
This year saw the publication of the “Compendium of anthroposophic curative education” to which
almost 40 authors contributed (ed. R. Grimm/G. Kaschubowski). For the first time, therefore, we now
have a comprehensive overview for the curative education community, published by a general academic publisher.
International collaboration
Collaboration with national associations, organizations and institutions is an important aspect of our
work. This occurs through attending and co-designing conferences and congresses, and through discussion and realization of common tasks, Last year, for instance, an international conference for curative education and social therapy took place in Lima, Peru. These tasks also include collaboration and
representation in specialist associations and institutes, such as the “IMEW” institute for humanity, ethics
and science in Berlin. The founding of an institute for curative education at Alanus College in Alfter was
also an important step: a masters course in curative education has now begun here (with an emphasis
on management, education/training and research).
Rüdiger Grimm
International forum for anthroposophic nursing
This year we can report on two outstanding events in anthroposophic nursing. Firstly, a profile of anthroposophic nursing was published in the “Blue brochures on anthroposophic nursing” series. This is
intended primarily for all patients and their relatives and adds to the public’s image of anthroposophic
16
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
medicine. Secondly, after two years of work, a sustainable basis for a specific qualification as anthroposophic nursing expert was developed for the nursing profession. This was needed in order to show
the goal to which training and further/advanced training course can lead in the field of anthroposophic nursing. Worldwide there are 5 training courses with state-recognized qualification, and 10 basic
courses. In Israel this year a basic further training course was offered for the first time.
“Experts in anthroposophic nursing”?
In recent decades anthroposophic nursing has developed worldwide. The anthroposophic view of
the human being underlying it has enhanced nursing in many domains. With knowledge of the nature of the human being, his need for healing, nursing and self-development, numerous nurses have
developed capacities through intensive work and practice which distinguish them as experts in anthroposopic nursing. Alongside this there are now a range of further and advanced training courses
in specialized disciplines of anthroposophic nursing, or in anthroposophic nursing per se. The abilities
developed here have not so far been specially named nor have they been awarded qualifications.
Quality was a given, but it had no designation. This is now set to change with a certificate issued by
the Medical Section entitled “Expert in anthroposophic nursing (IFAP)”. This aims to show that special
knowledge and capacities are needed for the practice of anthroposophic nursing and that this knowledge can be taught and learned. A further reason for this move is as quality assurance for anthroposophically oriented nursing services, clinics or freelance nurses, who wish to represent anthroposophic
nursing in the public domain.
Rolf Heine
Rolf Heine
Nurse
Executive board member of the association of anthroposophic nursing
professions in Germany
Umbrella association of anthroposophic
medicine/Germany
[email protected]/www.vfap.de
Eurythmy therapy coordination forum / network
The First World Eurythmy Therapy conference in Dornach at the beginning of May 08 was attended by
almost 800 colleagues from 33 countries. The focus of study and shared practice and discussion on each of
the seven days was one lecture from the Curative Eurythmy Course.
The profession community also occupied itself with the following questions:
How can the course of therapy in eurythmy therapy be properly and appropriately documented?•
How can eurythmy therapy research be usefully developed?
How can quality development become a common impetus?
How do we find the balance between inner work on the sources and external presentation of our capacities and what we do?
How can we bring eurythmy therapy into interdisciplinary dialog with physicians and other therapy profession groups?
Our official international profession designation (due to the English translation) is ‘Eurythmy Therapy’. How will this designation accord in future with our view of what we do?
The ‘celebratory volume’ reporting on the conference conveys an idea and sense of this special week, and
Angelika Jaschke
Eurythmy therapist.
Eurythmy therapy forum
[email protected]
can be obtained via the Medical Section.
Alongside preparation for this event, which dominated everything else, the conference itself, and review
of it subsequently in different countries, other work processes continued. At the international trainers conference, common learning objectives and key qualifications of the framework curriculum were developed
further. Work is currently proceeding on questions of mutual recognition through partnerships, peer evaluation, and auditor and trainer training courses.
In September 08, the first professor for eurythmy therapy was appointed at Alanus College, and the first 14
masters graduates ‘passed out’.
In November the first eurythmy therapy research symposium took place.
In collaboration with anthroposophic art therapists, an international profession profile has been agreed by
the professional associations. At national levels state recognition is being pursued in almost all European
countries. The international ethics guideline on eurythmy therapy is being developed further. Responsibility
for specialist further training courses in each country is increasingly being taken by practice-field representatives. The next step is cross-border dialog between these representatives. Work is underway on a mentors network.
Angelika Jaschke
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
17
Coordination of anthroposophic art therapy
The focus of my 7 months’ work as successor to Dagmar Brauer initially lay in making contact with
the many people involved in anthroposophic art therapy, and the annual summer gathering of
the European Academy (EA) to which 12 schools now belong. The EA is a federation of international training centers offering professional qualifications, and serves the Medical Section as recognition and evaluation council. Themes currently under review are the preparation and realization
of self- and re-evaluation, and collaboration with anthroposophic training colleges. In this regard
an initial meeting took place with Alanus College. In England, likewise, efforts are underway to
establish a college graduate course for art therapists. The annual conference of the Swiss association
for anthroposophic art therapy: From 2010 it will be possible to complete a state-recognized higher
qualifying exam in Switzerland to become an art therapist. Meeting of the anthroposophic art therapy
profession associations: The associations are planning to have the umbrella association registered as a
legal entity.
Exhibition on anthroposophic art therapy (AAT) at the Goetheanum as part of the Medical Section’s annual conference: For this initiative, professional association representatives, school directors and individual therapists are collaborating to offer more information about AAT.
Working days on therapeutic speech formation: A lively occasion due to good support from the Medical Section and the Section for the Arts of Eurythmy, Speech, Drama and Music, and higher participant
numbers than usual. New training impulses were presented. Besides using this conference for further
specialist training, the speech formation practitioners also develop professional structures here in the
fields of education, clinical work, networking, publicity work and further training.
Meeting of all school directors in and around Dornach, which ended with a statement of intent for founding the anthroposophically based Academy Association for Therapy and Art. The founding members
of the association are: the sculptural and artistic therapy training, the Orpheus school for music therapy (Lenzburg), the Dornach independent school of painting (‘Freie Malschule’), the school for rhythmic
massage, the eurythmy therapy training course and the AmWort training initiative, and the training and
further training course for speech formation in art, education and therapy. The first aim of the association
is to gear common training modules to preparation for the Swiss higher qualifying exam.
The eleventh international working days for anthroposophic art therapy will take place from January
8-11, under the title of: ‘Between lethargy and chaos: the pathophysiology and therapy of the will’. This
conference is characterized by interdisciplinary dialog, including the field of medicine.
Kirstin Kaiser
Kirstin Kaiser
Speech therapist
[email protected]
Unda Niedermann
Physiotherapeutin
Leitungsmitglied der Schweizer
Schule für Rhythmische Massage
[email protected]
Tagungsunterlagen: sekretariat@
medsektion-goetheanum.ch
18
Physiotherapy and physical therapies coordination
This year the focus has been on preparations for the 2009 international conference entitled “Upright
stance and the knee” from March 19 to 22 2009.S
The preparation group - consisting of Ricarda Meyer, Aoine Landweer-Cooke and Stephan Thilo drafted and sent out the invitations in good time for the annual conference.
This conference will offer the basis for further specialist training as well as a space for free initiatives
to develop. The School of Spiritual Science physiotherapy group is working in particular on the mantras
from the 9th Class Lesson. The next meeting of this group will be at the 2009 physiotherapy conference.
Please send further notifications/registrations to the following contact addresses;
Joukje Pothoven, [email protected], Henny Kerkhof, [email protected], Christa MaierSchnorr, [email protected]
A symposium on external applications in the form of compresses, packs and poultices will take
place under the title of: ‘External application practice in anthroposophic therapy’. Organizers: Rolf
Heine (nursing profession coordination), Reinhold Schön and Sabine Gerber (External applications and hydrotherapy coordination).
Based on his work in preparing the ‘Academy for Therapeutic Excellence’, Peter Altmeyer will develop a
working group: ‘The Philosophy of Freedom as therapeutic path in relation to undivided attention.’ The
Academy for Therapeutic Excellence will be organized as an in-service training and study seminar. Its aim
is for a group of people working in the therapeutic field to develop together the capacity for individual
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
therapeutic action, with full presence of mind. Peter Altmeyer, email: [email protected]
The trainers group for rhythmic massage worldwide is continuing its collaboration by engaging in
professional dialog relating to the basic grips and qualities of rhythmic massage, and in relation
to legal regulations. Admission and qualifying criteria for the further training course were agreed,
leading to the Diploma in Rhythmic Massage as taught by Ita Wegman MD. The training centers’
trainers group has taken on the task of overseeing the recognition procedure, jointly regulating
criteria for admission, qualification and the recognition procedure for training courses in RM, and
supporting new training initiatives through a mutual sponsor system. Frau Irmgard Marbach, formerly responsible for managing rhythmic massage training, passed over the threshold on September 1 2008. At a memorial meeting in Boll we celebrated her work and our memories of her.
Tomas Klein is working to establish a recognized training center in Argentina. At least three colleagues are undergoing training in Brazil for this purpose, in order to teach and represent rhythmic
massage in Argentina alongside Tomas Klein. This initiative urgently needs our support. Please feel
free to send a donation, headed “Anthroposophic physiotherapy, RM School Argentina”.
Now I want to thank all APT colleagues involved in the physiotherapy network and in preparing
the future with forward-looking initiatives. In the coming year I am hoping for continuing, active
interdisciplinary contact between all professional groups.
Unda Niedermann
Anthroposophic psychotherapy coordination
Foundations for a postgraduate further training course
Representatives of national societies at the Medical Section’s annual conference in September were
invited to agree the basic structure of an interim postgraduate further training in relation to content,
duration, criteria for admission, qualification and recognition. This course will be underpinned by professional expertise and paths of schooling based on anthroposophic insights into the human being.
Academicization
Our colleague John Lees has been working at Leeds University/UK since 2008, preparing research tasks
in coordination with anthroposophic therapy fields in the EU.
Following the first training course, academicization in Brazil is in preparation at the Faculty of Medicine
in Sao Paolo.
At Witten-Herdecke University’s Faculty of Medicine, an anthroposophic extension curriculum has
been on offer for several years. This includes a module on “Pathogenesis due to developmental disorders from the perspective of anthroposophic psychotherapy”. (Diethard Täuschel MD).
Henriette Dekkers
Psychotherapy coordination
Psychologist/psychotherapist
[email protected]
Postgraduate further training courses based on anthroposophically extended psychotherapy and/or
psychiatry are planned in the following countries in 2009:
Spain: organized by the training institute of the Spanish Medical Section
Israel: organized by members of the community of anthroposophic physicians and psychiatrists
India: Linked to the 2008 IPMT in Bangalore, at the initiative of professional colleagues
Russia: Linked to the IPMTs and in collaboration with, and at the initiative of specialist physicians and
social therapy further training courses
Chile: Here the local initiatives already existing in the field of psychotherapy are being mutually coordinated.
Alongside the coordinators, the anthroposophically active colleague and university lecturer John Lees
D.Phil has joined the coordination work of the psychotherapy subsection, as has Adelina Rennó in Brazil.
Henriette Dekkers, Ad Dekkers
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
Ad Dekkers
Psychotherapy coordination
Psychologist/psychotherapist
[email protected]
19
Coordination of student activities
Five people are currently working together as the official coordination team, having committed themselves to coordinating student activities. They are Niklas Bruchner, Eisenhardt Daecke, Rene Ebersbach,
Natascha Neisecke, and Theresia Knittel. Our focus was and remains an intensive examination of issues relating to the future of anthroposophic medicine, and the responsibility of the younger generation for the
continuing development of AM.
Student life within the anthroposophic medical movement can be divided into the following areas:
1. Initiatives which address a special issue or task
From January 9-11, 2009: Meeting on the subject of anthroposophic medical training for medical students. Contact: Johannes Weinzirl, [email protected]
Survey of students and resident physicians about their experiences in anthroposophical hospitals regarding
training and advanced training. Planned for early 2009. Contact: Niklas Bruchner, [email protected],
Jana Ertl, [email protected].
Initiative for Anthroposophic Medical Training
Support for medical students through grants and mentoring. Contact: Philipp Busche, [email protected].
2. University activities
Elective clinical course in “Anthroposophic Medicine” at the universities of Ulm and Tübingen. Contact: Christoph Holtermann, Ulm, [email protected], Natasche Neisecke, Tübingen, [email protected].
Subsidiary course in anthroposophic medicine. Various events open to external participants. Friedrich Edelhäuser MD, Christian Scheffer MD, Diethard Tauschel, Dr. rer. nat. Dirk Cysarz, Tel.: 0049 (0)2302 926733 or 0049
(0)2302 623468.
3. Ongoing work-related events taking place at regular intervals:
Meeting of young physicians. No new date currently available. Contact: Natascha Neisecke, [email protected].
Asklepios Forum. New interdisciplinary initiative of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum. It addresses
young people undergoing training, on courses and in practice. The next weekend will take place in the Stuttgart area in spring 2009. Contact: [email protected].
Medical Course at the Goetheanum for Medical Students. March 7-14, 2009, Directors: W. Rißmann, F. Baur,
C. Kaufmann. Information and registration: F. Baur, Schlettstaedterstr. 25, 4055 Basel, tel.: 0041 (0)61 322 0290,
[email protected].
Buchenbach Medical Work. Six monthly meetings on various subjects. Contact Jana Ertl, [email protected].
Wuppertal Medical Group. Working Group for Extended Medicine, c/o Ulrich Geyer MD, Felsenstr. 35, 89518
Heidenheim, [email protected] or Tobias Daumüller, [email protected] Klosterallee 15, 73450 Neresheim, tel.: 0049 (0)7326/91 96 17, 0049 (0)173 72 33 559.
South-western Germany. “Young Physicians’Working Group”: Swantje Harlan, Schubertstr. 5, 79104 Freiburg.
4. Regional working groups
We are currently aware of 17 working groups, of which 12 are in Germany, two in Vienna, two in Switzerland
and one in Portugal. Please request contact addresses from: ausbildung-studium@medsektion-goetheanum.
ch.
5. Conferences
“The Health of the Earth and Human Beings”. In collaboration with the Youth Section, February 13-15, 2009.
Contact: Philipp Busche, [email protected], Natascha Neisecke, [email protected]. A key
subject which is currently concerning us as students and which we will work with in the coming weeks
and months is the issue of the training situation in anthroposophic medicine and also, in this context, crossgenerational collaboration between students and practicing physicians.
TheresiaKnittel
Theresia Knittel
Student Coordinator
[email protected]
20
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
Patient organizations and EFPAM coordination
European Federation of Patients’ Associations for Anthroposophic Medicine
The first seven years of EFPAM’s activities were focused on enhancing the organization’s profile
through participation and requests to speak at internal and external conferences, and at hearings of
European bodies, etc. Our website was also redesigned in the year under review.
The next seven years are to be marked by a more vocal public profile. We want to make the voice
of patients heard on a more sustained basis in various European and international bodies. The intellectual climate in Europe has considerably improved in recent years, and in this context patient
rights have also won increasing attention. The European Union sent out various invitations to submit
reports in the year under review, and EFPAM was involved in this (e.g. consultations on patient information, patient safety, etc.). EFPAM participated in various bodies during the year under review and
attended conferences, for example in the context of IKAM, the ELIANT campaign and the European
Forum for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Links with the European homeopathy consumer association were further intensified. Collaboration with the IVAA and ECHAMP is excellent. Thus
ECHAMP was one among several bodies that facilitated and strongly supported cooperation with
other organizations.
René de Winter M.A.
EFPAM /President of the European
Federation of Patients’ Associations
for Anthroposophic Medicine
[email protected]
The work of the EFPAM council was focused mainly on the following four areas in 2008:
Collaboration, expansion of networks, forming alliances
Monitoring and representation of interests
Development of internal organization
“Patients’ competency” project
EFPAM sees growing interest in the subject of “patients’ rights” in Europe, as expressed, for instance,
by the “European Charter of Patients’ Rights” citizens’ initiative (since 2002), as a good opportunity
to enhance representation of the interests of anthroposophic patients’ associations. In the longer
term, it will now be a matter of further developing patients’ competency and promoting the idea
of prevention, as well as personal involvement in managing one’s own illness, supported also by
publication of current research results. A marked incentive here is the emphasis on personal responsibility and participation in decisions regarding one’s own health, as promoted by a variety of
European institutions. René Winter
René de Winter
Public relations coordination
Since early 2008 I have been learning the ropes in the Medical
Section – initially with a part-time public relations post taking
10% of my time. Collaboration with Jürgen Schürholz was invaluable here; he, furthermore, was pleased to be relieved gradually
of international coordination work. My work concentrated on the
development of a network of journalists familiar with the Medical
Section. But in my main job – press and public relations for the
ELIANT campaign – I have learned a great deal which will prove
useful when I start in the full-time post with the Medical Section
in 2009. I look forward to working full-time on coordination tasks
and in the Medical Section.
Heike Sommer
Jürgen Schürholz MD
Public relations coordinator
Specialist in internal medicine,
co-founder of the Filderklinik hospital
in Stuttgart, retired president of the
administrative board of Weleda AG,
[email protected]
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
Heike Sommer M.A.
Public relations coordinator
heike.sommer@
medsektion-goetheanum.ch
www.medsektion-goetheanum.ch
www.eliant.eu
21
International Postgraduate Medical Training/IPMT
Stefan Langhammer
IPMT Coordinator
+41 61 706 43 70
[email protected]
One focus of the work of the Medical Section were the 12 IPMT training weeks held in different parts of
the world – if travel time is included, about three months devoted purely to training! In 2008 about 700
physicians, medical students and therapists attended training in 11 locations: Santiago/Chile, Buenos
Aires/Argentina, Palm Springs/USA, Bangalore/India, Mindanao/Philippines, Nagano/Japan, Sydney/
Australia, Irkutsk/Siberia, St. Petersburg/Russia, Odessa/Ukraine and twice in Dornach/Switzerland.
In general it can be said that in many countries the IPMT training week has become a key communitybuilding element in the cycle of the year. Anthroposophically-oriented physicians and therapists in a
particular region meet faithfully, usually at the same time each year, and immerse themselves in a daily
recurring flow of work, practicing and communicating intensively with one another: eurythmy in the
morning, observation exercises and text work before noon, specialist medical and therapy courses in
the afternoon, plus consideration of ethical questions in the evening.
A training week of this kind took place in Chile and the USA for the first time this year – hence we were
exceedingly surprised by the lively attendance: in the vicinity of Santiago about 130 participants, including a large number of medical students, joined the course with very open and serious minds but also
with South American joie de vivre. In the USA, where it is no easy matter to take time off for a whole
week, 58 physicians, nursing practitioners and osteopaths came to Palm Springs and worked for seven
days intensively and productively with a largely North American team of lecturers. As a result of these
two weeks, regional working groups formed and will continue through the year to engage together in
study of the fundamentals of anthroposophic medicine.
As in previous years, the IPMT was also held in Dornach in 2008 – twice this year. It became evident
once again that those physicians and therapists who have studied anthroposophical medicine over several years feel a great need at the end of their training to gain personal acquaintance with the places
where Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman worked. Thus in early May we welcomed a group of Japanese
and in early September a group of Polish and Latvian physicians for a very intensive study period. The
visits to the Goetheanum, the hospitals here, Weleda AG, the Ita Wegman and Rudolf Steiner archives,
as well as, lastly, the Isenheim Altarpiece in Colmar, made a deep impression on participants.
In Ukraine, the change of location from Kiev to Odessa was the right decision: of the almost 60 participants at the IPMT about half were “newcomers” who involved themselves in the joint work with amazing openness and found direct access to it. At the end of the week we subsequently learned that an
anthroposophical medical center is to be established in the heart of Odessa at the initiative of a good
friend of the movement. The tenancy agreements are meanwhile already being negotiated, a group of
interested physicians and therapists has been found and work is to start in the summer of 2009!
In Russia, in connection with the Siberian and St. Petersburg IPMTs, the decision was taken in the spring to
start anthroposophical psychiatric training in St. Petersburg. The idea is that it should be held at
Group photo of the IPMT advanced
training block in Nagano/Japan. Work
was agreeable, with an hour of eurythmy in the morning followed by nature
observation and study of Steiner texts.
Afternoon: AM and pharmaceutical
processes in practice.
Evening: Ethical questions and inner
development.
22
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
IPMT Irkutsk/Siberia in a lecture
theatre during the course
sixmonthly intervals and cover six weeks of training. This started in December 2008.
In other parts of the world, too, training activities are starting up as a direct consequence of the IPMT. For example the fifth and final IPMT for Baltic physicians took place in 2007. Now, this autumn, a three-year course
to qualify as an anthroposophical physician will start in Riga in collaboration with the university there, at the
initiative of a Latvian physician.
In the coming year the plan is to give highest priority to the preparation of teaching materials for IPMT students based on experiences gained since the first IPMT in 2002. As a consequence Michaela Glöckler will
hand over direction of some training weeks in 2009 to experienced IPMT lecturers and concentrate more on
conceiving and drafting teaching materials. We also feel it necessary to evaluate these first seven years
of global training activities in greater detail.
From a financial point of view, the IPMT was unfortunately not supported to the same extent in 2008 as in
previous years. Although we were able to significantly reduce overall administrative expenses and thus costs
per country, we did not succeed in covering costs. At the time of going to press we had received about
one third fewer funding promises than the previous year. If attendance fees are to remain affordable,
it will continue to be impossible - particularly in financially weaker countries - for these fees to include costs
for lecturers’ travel, some of their accommodation and subsistence as well as administration (project
planning and execution, program preparation and postage, mentor assignment, correspondence, study materials, etc.). Hence we continue to rely on donations for this important project. We would like
to thank the Software AG, the Dr. Hauschka Foundation, the Verein zur Erforschung der Farbtherapie
e.V. as well as Weleda and the Hiscia Research Institute very warmly for their support!
Stefan Langhammer
Poster announcing the IPMT and annual conference in Odessa
IPMT 2008 (as per 30.11.2008)
Participants Lecturers
Santiago/Chile
Travel costs
Accommodation/
Subsistence
Fees
Administration/
Material costs
Total
costs
Income
Funding
Result
(in SF)
126
7
-10'620.00
-3'150.00
-11'160.00
-24'930.00
21'470.00
-3'460.00
Bangalore/Indien
49
8
-10'620.00
-5'650.00
-11'160.00
-27'430.00
21'470.00
-5'960.00
Palm Springs/USA
56
8
-4'350.00
-2'700.00
-11'160.00
-18'210.00
22'575.00
4'365.00
Kidapawan/Philippinen
62
10
-16'890.00
-5'150.00
-11'160.00
-33'200.00
21'675.00
-11'525.00
Dornach(I)/Switzerland
25
7
-1'880.00
-2'760.00
-11'160.00
-22'070.00
21'470.00
9'070.00
-6'270.00
9'670.00
Odessa/Ukraine
57
9
-12'500.00
-9'000.00
-11'160.00
-32'660.00
21'470.00
-11'190.00
Irkutsk/Sibirien
29
3
-12'740.00
-2'250.00
-11'160.00
-26'150.00
23'890.00
-2'260.00
Sydney/Australien
49
8
-7'650.00
-5'190.00
-11'160.00
-24'000.00
21'470.00
-2'530.00
Nagano/Japan
62
8
-10'870.00
-4'700.00
-11'160.00
-26'730.00
21'470.00
-5'260.00
St.Petersburg/Russia
95
7
-7'730.00
-6'390.00
-2'960.00
-11'160.00
-28'240.00
23'070.00
-5'170.00
Dornach(II)/Schweiz
20
9
-600.00
-7'900.00
-3'870.00
-11'160.00
-23'530.00
21'470.00
3'230.00
Buenos Aires/
Argentina
65
5
-10'570.00
-3'420.00
-11'160.00
-25'150.00
21'470.00
-3'680.00
695
89
-107'020.00
-50'800.00
-133'920.00
-312'300.00
14'960.00
262'970.00
-34'370.00
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
23
Gesamt (in CHF)
-20'560.00
5'290.00
Report from the Section director
My work at the Goetheanum again this year again focused primarily on the many different conferences, comprising more than fifty events in 2008. Then there were the regular meetings of the
Collegium of the School of Spiritual Science as well as involvement in the preparation of the new
staging of the Mystery dramas. Internationally, the focus was on the 12 IPMT training weeks, which
it was my great pleasure to actively support. My particular interest this year lay in collaboration
with IKAM coordinators and the question of how, to an even greater extent, we can promote work
on the anthroposophic medical movement’s ‘construction sites’ through intensification of mutual
awareness and support.
Michaela Glöckler MD
Head of the Medical Section
Tel.: +41 61 706 42 92
michaela.gloeckler@
medsektion-goetheanum.ch
Continuing to develop AM in terms of its understanding of the human being and its fundamental
ideas, helping to give it the worldwide legal framework it requires, and contributing ideas for ways
in which anthroposophic medical practice can retain its capacity for development in a dramatically
changing social and health-policy landscape – this is an inspiring task of which we can say, in the
words of Jörgen Smit: We may struggle with it, but the struggle makes us grow.
In 2008 the office also became a more coherent unit. The Medical Section made significant progress
this year in relation to staff and financial consolidation. It really has taken seven years to manage
the change and growth from the “two-room Section” in the Goetheanum into our own seven-room
building, and, in terms of staff and finances, to properly accommodate the associated division of
labor with the forms of collaboration this entails.
Doris Balsinger
Secretariat
Tel.: +41 61 706 44 75
sekretariat@
medsektion-goetheanum.ch
Astrid Schmitt-Stegmann
Lecturer at Rudolf Steiner College in
Sacramento/USA
Academic assistant
Tel.: +41 61 706 42 92
astrid.schmi-ste@
medsektion-goetheanum.ch
24
The turning point came when Dorit Dirlam joined our team. With her care and discretion, calm,
and sense of what is important, she not only fulfilled urgently needed support tasks for the Section
management - for the first time really properly - which freed me up to a certain degree, but also anchored in the secretariat the extremely supportive skills of coordination and integration. This meant
that all other work processes also acquired a more defined and secure foundation. Though she has
now left us for personal reasons, she left behind a strengthened social organism, for which we owe
her a great debt of gratitude. We very much hope to find a successor very soon, and are pleased
that a promising candidate has already applied who will join the Section at the start of the year to
become acquainted with it.
Stefan Langhammer has succeeded in introducing detailed transparency into the financial management, which has long been desired. Here good collaboration with the data processing consultants
eQsrend in Unna/Germany was of invaluable assistance. This is the second year they have helped
us, creating a data processing system which does not require us to adapt our way of working to the
system but which reflects and truly supports our work patterns. I am also very grateful that Astrid
Schmitt-Stegmann from Sacramento/USA has decided to extend her sabbatical for another year to
take on academic/research support. Roland Tüscher, who has become familiar with all the procedures and pitfalls of preparing and holding conferences, performs an invaluable job. Doris Balsiger
– the longest-serving member of the Section apart from me – always ensures valuable continuity
and gives friendly support to new arrivals.
Supported in this way in my work, it has been possible to manage my frequent absences due to
medical training courses and other obligations. The great amount of time taken up by my work for
the ELIANT campaign would not have been possible either without this new support structure in
the office.
Michaela Glöckler
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
The finances
Monetary flow over the year reflects the activities of the people who collaborate together. Thus 2008 was particularly characterized by conference and training activities:
about 60% of our expenditure and income can be ascribed to these two sectors. Above all, the very successful First World Conference for Eurythmy Therapy increased our
turnover by about a quarter of a million francs in comparison with the previous year,
and helped to create a situation in which we are likely to meet our year-end target of
a largely balanced result in the conference sector. Warm thanks to all those committed
helpers and donors who made this possible!
Sadly we did not manage to achieve the same result with regard to our training activities. For IPMT there was a clear fall in donations (see p.23), which means a significant
deficit here. The new public relations sector was focused in 2008 primarily on support
for the ELIANT campaign whose aim it is to create a sustainable political foundation at
European level for anthroposophic ventures including medicine. We are very grateful
that our International Coordination of Anthroposophic Medicine (IKAM) received clear
support in terms of finances. In areas where there has already been success in building
sustainable networks (e.g. in curative education and social therapy or in the Eurythmy
Therapy Forum), one can directly experience how this sustains and enhances the work of the Section.
About 40% of funding for the Medical Section this year came from income for services provided by the
Section and approx. 60% came from donations. Alongside conferences and training, the directly incomegenerating services of the Section included the preparation and sale of publications on anthroposophic
medicine as well as lecturing and consulting services by Michaela Glöckler.
As you will have seen in looking through this booklet, we have largely omitted detailed expenditure
and income figures, since the early appearance of our annual report meant that these figures were only
provisional. We are happy to provide the annual accounts on request from mid-March. In view of the
anticipated deficit by year-end of about SF 120,000, we are endeavoring to raise the funds still lacking, in
particular the shortfall for training activities. We also hope that fundraising for the ELIANT campaign will
be successful to the extent that we can recoup some of the Medical Section’s large financial commitment
to this project. We will, nevertheless, have to reduce our operating costs in the coming year in order to
keep afloat in the generally difficult economic situation. The funding which you provide in this respect
as an individual, institution or association is of great help! Warm thanks to all who support our work with
their good thoughts and smaller or larger donations.
Stefan Langhammer
InPremises of the Medical Section since 2001, view towards the
Goetheanum from the south.
Stefan Langhammer
IPMT coordinator
+41 61 706 43 70
[email protected]
Total overview (as per November 11, 2008)
Expenditure (SF))
Total
Income (SF)
Total
Med
-482'590.00
Med
476'430.00
IKAM and PR work
-183'320.00
IKAM and PR work
145'450.00
Publications
-43'930.00
Publications
43'260.00
Conferences
-593'840.00
Conferences
616'330.00
Eurythmy therapy training
-129'900.00
Eurythmy therapy training
107'240.00
IPMT
-312'300.00
IPMT
277'930.00
Total
-1'745'880.00
Total
1'666'640.00
Deficit
-79'240.00
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009
25
Newsletter of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum
Within my being’s depths there speaks,
intent on manifesting,
mysteriously the cosmic word:
Imbue the aims of all your work
with my bright light of spirit
to sacrifice yourself through me.
Rudolf Steiner
Dear friends,
After a three-year interval, the newsletter was sent out again for the first time in Advent of this year – even if only electronically by email.
Hence it is appearing now in a slightly changed form in the annual report, combined with the following request.
Anyone who would in future like to receive the newsletter by post should inform us as quickly as possible. The recommended contribution to costs for printing and postage of at least six issues per year, including the annual report, is EURO 30 or SF 40 per year.
7 x 12 years ago – on March 11 1924 - Ita Wegman and Rudolf Steiner wrote in their first newsletter to ‘those connected with us in
nurturing medical work’ that they wished to imbue every word with some of the ‘feelings invoked by humanity’s suffering, which is the
sole source not only of our dedication to medicine but also its true power’.
During the pastoral medicine course, the so-called esoteric foundation of the Medical Section then took place in September 1924 in
accordance with the concept of esotericism which Rudolf Steiner formulated on September 5, 1924 for the Anthroposophical Society:
Only those things can found and maintain the Anthroposophical Society in an esoteric sense which are present as real human relationships. Hence in future everything must be founded on real human relationships, on tangible not abstract spiritual life. One simply has to
be capable of understanding such tangible, specific spiritual life in that way and to see it in the smallest details of life (cf. address of
September 18 in GA 318). Everything which has taken place since then by way of community building and coordinating activity within
the anthroposophic medical movement has seen itself as building on this powerfully and warmly expressed starting point of
collaboration among colleagues.
Today almost all countries in which AM is represented have developed their own forms of communication. Many websites have been
created, some of them already well linked. In the coming year, once Heike Sommer has finished her work for ELIANT and can devote her
attention fully to the Medical Section website, one of her aims will be to promote global networking and to collaborate on an integrated
public profile for AM.
The task of the newly revived newsletter will therefore primarily be to communicate in brief, and at regular intervals, important ideas,
practical experiences, new developments, notices about international conferences, links and news, and to foster more unity again, and a
sense of cohesion across the differentiated spectrum of our movement.
We very much hope that all readers will give more frequent consideration to any news, questions or information in their own setting
which they could send us.
With warm thanks and regards from Dornach
Michaela Glöckler
26
Medizinische Sektion – Tätigkeitsbericht 2008 / Vorhaben 2009
Europäische Allianz von Initiativen Angewandter Anthroposophie / ELIANT
T
A
N
ELIANT CAMPAIGN
T I O
E
AKTION ELIANT
K
L
I A N
European Alliance of Initiatives for Applied Anthroposophy / ELIANT
To the readers of the annual report of the Medical Section,
After 2007 concluded with surprising success, we started 2008 with 300,000 signatures for the ELIANT campaign. At the start of the year, particularly, we were able to
recruit many new campaigners at conferences and events in Germany, Britain, Ireland,
Austria, Spain and Switzerland. A first highpoint were the 60,000 Easter emails and the
“2000 Balloons for ELIANT" campaign during the world teachers’ conference in Dornach.
We also managed to publish adverts or short articles, or include signature lists in
magazines such as a tempo, Lebendige Erde, Info3, Das Goetheanum, Die Drei, the
GLS Bank’s Bankenspiegel and WALA Pharm.
In the photo competition run by the Association of German Foundations, three
photos from the ELIANT campaign came among the top ten, drawing attention to
the campaign at the German Foundation Conference in Munich where ELIANT was
represented with a stand.
In August more than 200,000 ELIANT postcards in six languages went to initial signatories in 18 EU countries with a plea to return them with six new signatures. At
the end of August we reached the half-way point of the ELIANT campaign with more
than 500,000 signatures.
That breathed new life into the campaign and new articles appeared: an interview
with Michaela Glöckler, “Conditions for Civil Society”, in the September issue of a tempo and in October there was an insert with a response postcard in Weleda Nachrichten.
In the meantime we have collected 660,000 signatures and very much hope that during the Advent and Christmas period we will succeed in inspiring many people to
support the ELIANT campaign’s objectives. Please continue to support the campaign
with your good thoughts, by drawing other people’s attention to the signature
campaign or by helping us with a donation to cover this year’s expenditures.
Warm thanks and with good wishes for Christmas
ELIANT Campaign Team
Heike Sommer, Thomas Göing and Michaela Glöckler
Anyone wishing to support us financially should do so via our donations account
at the Anthroposophical Medicine Support Foundation (Förderstiftung Anthroposophische Medizin):
Germany and international: Aktion ELIANT
Acc. no.: 790 255 50 01, bank sort code: 430 609 67 GLS Bank Bochum
IBAN: DE66 4306 0967 7902 5550 01, BIC/Swift: GENODEM1GLS
Switzerland: Förderstiftung Anthroposophische Medizin, acc. no. 400.695.0
PC acc: 40-963-0 Freie Gemeinschaftsbank, Gerbergasse 30, CH 4001 Basel.
IBAN CH87 0839 2000 0040 0695 0, BIC/Swift: RAIFCH22XXX, "Aktion Eliant“
Medizinische Sektion – Tätigkeitsbericht 2008 / Vorhaben 2009
27
28
Report on activities – Forthcoming events and plans for 2009