AIMA History

The Aima History:

In 1992, Dr Vicki Kotsirilos together with like-minded colleagues became increasingly concerned by the lack of understanding about complementary therapies amongst the mainstream medical fraternity.  This culminated with some public statements made by the RACGP and the AMA which suggested that doctors practicing complementary medicine(CM) in their practice should lose medicare rebates for their consultations.  Vicki felt threatened and isolated as a GP but also knew that there were like-minded doctors who had also trained in this area.
 
A meeting of these doctors was convened and the ‘Australian Integrative Medicine Association (AIMA)’ was born.  The AIMA’s objective was to act as a peer support group of doctors that would communicate openly and respectfully with bodies such as the HIC, RACGP and AMA.  It was also important to let other GPs know that there were GPs practicing integrative medicine with the same degree of ethics and accountability as they had in their mainstream practice.
  
1992: AIMA Formed.
1992 - 1998: Founding President   Dr. Vicki Kotsirilos
1994: AIMA officially incorporated as a non-profit association.
1995:

AIMA officially affiliated with Victorian Australian Medical Association.

Duscussions commenced with AIMA and RACGP
1998: First AIMA conference, Melbourne.
1998 - 2000: AIMA President Dr. Margarent Ngu
2000 - 2007: AIMA President Professor Marc Cohen
2000:

Following on from the tradition of the Gawler Conferences; the AIMA Holistic Health Conference was first held in Byron Bay, NSW - has continued successfully on an annual basis, held in a different location around Australia each year.
 2003 - Current: Royal Australian College of General Practitioners - (RACGP) - AIMA Working party formed.
 2005: November - AIMA Moved office to new/current premises located within the RACGP Building, 1 Palmerston Cres South Melbourne.
 2007-2009:  AIMA President:  Professor Avni Sali
2009 - 2011:   Current AIMA President:  Professor Kerryn Phelps

About AIMA