The Invest in ME Research #IIMEC14 Pre-Conference Dinner 2019
London, May, 2019
The IIMEC14 conference programme is finalised and this means we turn our attention to one of the other events organised by the charity during ME Conference Week to raise awareness, educate and add another opportunity for networking.
Every event organised by IiMER has objectives behind it as the charity attempts to make the most of the opportunities that we create.
We invite a keynote speaker to present at the pre-conference dinner in order to bring a different perspective to the audience.
For 2019 we thought it might be a good time to look at how things were, what has been done, what has been achieved, how things will go forward.
So who could give such an overview from the perspective of an observer
, a knowledgeable sage, a person who could articulate well what has gone on, a person who can tell it like it is?
Somebody who is genuine and knows how things work in parliament, in science, in society - and who knows how the various hidden networks operate to
inhibit, influence or prevent progress from being made for the benefit of patients.
Somebody who is aware of what the charity has been attempting to do.
We held our first
conference in
Westminster,
London in 2006
in the hope that
politicians and
other healthcare
decision makers
could easily attend.
Dr Ian Gibson, MP
for Norwich North at the time, opened
the first conference. He has been the
charity's supporter and advisor ever
since.
Dr Ian Gibson - IIMEC1 Keynote Speech 2006
IIMEC1 - London 2006
IIMEC14 Pre-Conference Presentation
This year we are pleased to announce that Dr Ian Gibson has agreed to present the IIMEC14 Pre-Conference Dinner Presentation for 2019.
Dr Gibson is a scientist, politician and academic and is uniquely qualified to comment on how science and politics have become intertwined. Dr. Gibson has an inside perspective on this topic and he has been a strong advocate of science in the UK.
Dr Ian Gibson worked at University of East Anglia for 32 years, became Dean of the school of biological sciences in 1991 and was head of a cancer research team and set up the Francesca Gunn Leukaemia Laboratory at UEA.
In 2011 Dr Gibson received an honorary doctorate of civil law from UEA.
Dr Ian Gibson led an inquiry into ME in 2006
[click here].
Without official funding, and at a time
when unbiased and independent analysis on
the way ME was being treated and reported on
by the establishment organisations and media
was lacking, Dr Gibson provided a checkpoint
which attempted to get publicity and force
change which would help ME patients.
The Gibson Inquiry made several recommendations [click here].
That the then Labour government ignored the report, and its recommendations, will forever cast a shadow on the health minister at the time and on the government itself.
Since that time Dr Gibson has been influential
in assisting IiMER in meetings to develop the UK Centre of Excellence for ME.
He has also chaired the IiMEC* conferences.
After 12 years of IIMEC* conferences, and following the tenth anniversary of the Gibson Inquiry, and when change was slowly managing to creep into establishment organisations, Dr Gibson felt it was necessary to look at the way that politics and the actions of some have influenced the way ME has been, and continues to be the subject of misrepresentation, inappropriate media reporting, ineffective research funding and a pervading prejudice that needs to be exposed.
SPME
Thus was born "Science, Politics, .......and ME" - a book detailing the healthcare scandal in our generation.
Dr Gibson, and co-author Elaine Sherriffs, started interviews with knowledgeable individuals following the IiMER London conference and established new contacts.
It is important to understand the politics of ME
and how the 'establishment' in most countries
reacts.
Dr Gibson is familiar with the political events in
the UK, how they affect healthcare and
patients and how some organisations and
individuals are unduly influencing these
policies.
Dr
Gibson and Elaine visited or interviewed
researchers, clinicians, advocates, patients,
carers and others to produce an analysis of
ME - the Science and Politics behind the way
ME is treated.
The project was aided by a generous donation toward the production of the book from the Irish ME Trust and by donations from some individuals.
Few diseases can have been so maligned by false information, so manipulated by an insidious establishment-controlled ideology, or so poorly dealt with by those holding the purse strings for research into the disease, than Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). This book examines a scandal in our generation - a scandal still being played out by corrupt, apathetic, inept or ignorant attitudes in governments and Medical Research Councils and health services.
The book is available via Amazon.
Order book here
IIMEC14 Pre-Conference Dinner 2019
The dinner precedes IIMEC14 - 14th Invest in ME Research International ME Conference 2019 which occurs in Westminster on the following day.
We hope to film this event also and to make it available after the conference.
register for conference
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Last Update April 2019