2022-2023 Affinity Group Meetings

2022-2023 Affinity Group Meetings

You’re invited to join the Clinical TMS Society Affinity Group Meetings. The meetings are scheduled for the 4th Tuesday of each month at 5 pm PT, and 8 pm ET. Groups have the option to schedule their own meeting outside of this time as needed. 

CLINICAL TMS RESEARCH COMMITTEE AFFINITY GROUPS:

Description: The Research Committee would like to help members form Affinity Groups to pursue their interests. Affinity Groups can serve to help members meet virtually and monthly by Discord and in person at the Annual Meeting to share information and clinical experiences, write papers, or even organize a project.

If you would like to identify a group of CTMSS members who share your interests in studying a specialized topic such as off-label treatments (e.g., tinnitus, chronic pain), specialized protocols (e.g., accelerated TMS), or any focused research of clinical question, then we want to hear from you. We will send out a notice to the society to help you identify like-minded individuals. Interested in starting an affinity group? Email info@clinicaltmssociety.org with 3-4 sentences about your idea for a group.

Regular Date/Time: 4th Tuesday of each month (groups may schedule their own meeting outside of this date)

Time: 5:00 pm PT / 8:00 pm ET

Platform: DISCORD

PLEASE NOTE: You only need to register ONCE for the 2022-2023 Affinity Groups.  If groups are scheduling meetings outside of the regularly scheduled meeting, the group leads are responsible to notify the group members.

The Affinity Groups are not required to meet during the regular monthly scheduled date and time. Groups are able to schedule meetings outside of the regular date and time as needed. The DISCORD link will be open 24/7. If a Group is meeting outside of the regular date and time, it is the Group lead's responsibility to schedule the meeting.

This meeting is for current members only.

REQUIRED: All Affinity Group participants must complete a Conflict of Interest (COI) and Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) forms. Click on the links below to complete the forms today.

• Conflict of Interest (COI) form
• Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) form

CURRENT AFFINITY GROUPS:

TMS and Addiction Affinity Group: 

• Lead: John Tumeh, MD
• Group Description: We know beyond doubt the benefit of rTMS in treating depression and OCD; and we can envisage the potential that the future holds for this therapy in the field of treatment of substance use disorders (SUD); be it due to the effect of rTMS on craving or the reward pathways resulting from SUD. We, as people of science, are determined to scrutinise the evidence available to ensure that our research committee guides the general knowledge and informs clinicians' decisions in deciding about the effect and use of this treatment in the delicate art of treating SUD. Our ultimate aim is to help better improve the treatments available for SUD patients at a time when the epidemic of use of some drugs is a great threat to some of our communities.

TMS and Autism Affinity Group: 

• Lead: Marco Marcolin, MD, PhD, Manuel Casanova, MD
• Group Description: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a multifactorial group of neurodevelopmental disorders whose treatment relies primarily on symptomatic interventions. Research on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in ASD is still at an early stage.  Still, many research studies, with limited numbers of high-functioning individuals, have proven to normalize executive functions, repetitive behaviors, dysatunomic symptoms, and brainwave oscillatory abnormalities.  Benefits have been achieved with little in terms of side effects. This affinity discussion group aims to increase awareness as to this potential therapeutic intervention while broadening research collaboration.  We aim to foster concerted international efforts promoting a phase III clinical trial, discuss the best stimulation parameters for this patient population, examine the need for booster shots after TMS therapy, and help screen for potential baseline biomarkers that may be able to predict outcome.  

TMS & Ketamine Affinity Group: 

• Lead: Steve Best, MD, Robert Pollack, MD, Rocky Sullivan, DO
• Group Description: Interest is rising in combining TMS with ketamine to harness the synergistic effect of these two conventional interventions for treatment-resistant depression. We are proposing an affinity group where members can meet to share clinical cases to better establish treatment protocols, share data, and advocate for this breakthrough treatment. 

Private Practice TMS: Clinical and Business Affinity Group: 

• Lead: Piper Buersmeyer, PMHNP-BC
• Group Description: The Private Practice and Business Affinity Group shares information regarding business structure, strategy, marketing, systems, workflow and clinical care. Providing TMS in a private practice setting in a sustainable and successful manner requires a unique set of skills and knowledge. The clinical application of TMS in private practice is different from that in research settings that define clinical protocols and patient exclusion criteria. We share ideas and tactics to strengthen small businesses and to learn clinical application from a variety of providers, nationally and internationally. 

TMS Mechanisms Affinity Group: 

• Lead: Joshua Brown, MD, PhD
• Group Description: The TMS Mechanisms Affinity Group is dedicated understanding how TMS changes the brain in a durable and therapeutic way. Such an understanding spans networks to molecules, in both animals and humans, and with both clinical and pre-clinical models. A mechanistic understanding is essential for patient education; optimization of current treatments; and expansion of investigative treatments.

TMS Treatment in Adolescents

• Lead: Anastasia Tsakiri, MBChB, CCT, CAMHS, ASRCPsych
• Group Description: TMS treatment in Adolescents appears nowdays to expand more and more. This group will focus to explore and promote the safety and effectiveness of TMS treatment in Adolescents with Depression and other Mental Health Conditions.

  We will also try to gather and share good medical practice  with colleagues of  TMS off label applications in young people in USA and internationally and reflect in ongoing research and updates in this field of TMS treatment.

TMS and Pain

• Lead: Mowafak Abdelghani, MD & Albert Leung, MD 
• Group Description: TMS and Pain Affinity Group provides members interested in adopting TMS as a treatment option for pain and headaches a platform to discuss issues relevant to the treatment. This could include but not limited to best practices for treating chronic pain/headache conditions, reviewing clinically impactful research for these conditions, and discussing and publishing clinical outcomes. This affinity group further aims to enrich the membership base of the CTMS Society by attracting and supporting potential members from various disciplines and medical specialties. The group will aim to promote collaboration with other nueromodulation and pain medicine societies to encourage further research as well as training, aiming to improve patients lives and reducing pain burden. 

TMS and Data Collection Affinity Group: 

• Lead: Angela Phillips, PhD, LICSW, Martha Koo, MD
• Group Description: The TMS & Data Collection Affinity Group will lead efforts to create and implement guidelines for clinical TMS  data collection, with relevant, associated clinical data.  These efforts may be presented individually or in an effort to pool larger data sets among collaborating TMS clinics and clinicians, in attempts to inform CTMSS society meeting content (e.g. conference talks, posters, abstracts, etc.), and/or the greater scientific community (e.g. academic journal publications).  The overall aim of this group is to organize ways to utilize past, present and future TMS data collection in order to advance the scientific understanding of TMS, including but not limited to, factors affecting TMS outcomes, expansion of TMS clinical applications, assessment/comparison of specific TMS protocols, and factors affecting recurrence of illness.