About FACT

A short history of FACT

In 1997, Ted Lo, a psychiatrist in Toronto, attempted to organize a national satellite conference between China and Canada on the modern practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China. He met many people interested in Chinese medicine, but also many more who were interested in the general area of alternative and complementary medicine.

This brought home to him the dearth of quality information in this area, despite increasing interest and use of CAM therapies. There were few non-partisan forums where people interested in this area could interact. He envisioned an organization whose mandate would be to promote learning opportunities in alternative & complementary medicine, a place where people sharing these interests could meet and learn from one another.

In January of 1988, over forty people met and agreed to form an organization. They formed small board and held seminars and educational visits. The year culminated in twin seminars (one in English and one in Chinese) on cancer and TCM. Over 270 people attended these seminars, which were very well received.

FACT was incorporated in September, 1998, with a board of 10 directors. Several eminent people in the area of complementary medicine were retained as advisors.

The next year opened with our first annual general meeting, coupled with a lively presentation on integrative medicine by one of our advisors, Dr. Steven Aung, and a buddhist vegetarian dinner attended by 90 people.

Other events followed. Some of highlights include:

• Our most successful event, "An Evening with Master Duan" (2000), attracted an overflow crowd of over 340 people. This event appeared on the front page of Toronto Star.
• Our more experiential events have been particularly popular and, to the delight of our members, we have repeated several of them: "Hands at Work", "Herbs and Fresh Air", and "Healing Sounds".
• One members-only event, the Spa Day (2002), saw 50 practitioners pampering 40 lucky members at Nefara Spa.
• The hugely successful "Flavours of Harmony" banquets have become one of the major social events of the complementary health field.
• A series of three Canadian Integrative Medicine Grand Rounds, held in major teaching hospitals in Toronto with teleconference connections to other Canadian cities (including Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatoon), led to the formation of the Integrative Healthcare Round Table. This organisation includes 14 member organisations, many of whom are schools and CAM associations. Other members include the Ontario College of Family Physicians, the Ontario Nurses Assocaotion and the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto.

Our success is largely due to our active search for collaboration with the major players in the CAM field, for example we work with local agencies like the Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences, and with national ones like the Canadian Complementary Medicine Association. We have also collaborated with other Canadian organizations, like the former Tzu Chi Institute in Vancouver and the World Natural Medicine Foundation in Edmonton. A bit further afield, we also work with the American Holistic Medical Association and the World Qigong Federation.

FACT also enjoys the strong support of our Corporate members and generous sponsors from the business community.

Our vision of a credible and practical database also sparked significant interest in the medical community, leading to partnerships between FACT and the Ontario College of Family Physicians, the Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences, the Department of Community and Family Medicine of the University of Toronto, and the Ontario Branch of the Canadian Association of Hospital Pharmacists. In October, 2000, the Change Foundation awarded this consortium a grant of $100,000 to start CAMline, an online database of scientific evidence for various products and therapies in CAM. Although that initiative is now defunct, we will continue this work in a different format in the Community section of this website (coming soon).

This significant body of work was acknowleged by the Canadian Complementary Medicine Association, who awarded FACT the Prix Clarité in 2002.

We launched our own web site www.thefacts.org in 2000. It has enhanced our reach, providing our members and the general public with a virtual meeting place to further their interests in this area.

As an organization dedicated to promote credible health information, FACT was a long-time Network Contributor to the Complementary and Alternative Health section of the Public Health Agency of Canada's now-defunct Canadian Health Network (1992-2008). Like FACT, the CHN's goal was to provide reliable health information to all Canadians.

As one of the few representatives of the public in this rapidly developing area, we have also been invited to participate in various discussion forums.

By 2003, membership in FACT grew to over 500, including over 100 practitioner and over 30 corporate members. Issues of our newsletter, The FACTs, were widely distributed to many sites in Toronto and beyond, with a circulation of over 5,000.

In 2004, to continue the momentum of the Integrative Grand Rounds, 17 members representing the schools and associations of the primary disciplines of CAM along with representatives of medicine, nursing and pharmacy formed the Integrative Healthcare Round Table. While FACT is the current chair, we hope it will eventually become a forum that belongs to all, and advance the field of CAM.

FACT became a registered charity (871529731-RR0001) in 2006. That same year, we hired a co-ordinator and set up a Fundraising committee.

We redesigned our website in 2008, incorporating a wiki-based information tool where our members can contribute their knowledge and experience in CAM modalities to create a database of reliable CAM information. Join us in this important endeavour.

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To join see our membership page, call 416-299-5113 or e-mail messages@thefacts.org