History

The conditions grouped under the umbrella term ‘functional gastrointestinal disorders’ (currently re-named “Disorders of gut-brain interaction”), originally coined to indicate gut disorders without any detectable structural and organic abnormalities, affected a large proportion of patients visiting Gastroenterology clinics. Though most of the Gastroenterologists managed these patients in India, only a few had deep clinical and research interests in this field.

Research in this field in India saw an upturn in the 1990s. The researchers in some of the centers in the country started to learn more about the pathophysiology of functional and, more specifically, motility disorders. Tribute must be paid to the late Prof. Subhash R Naik, the then Head of the Department of Gastroenterology at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, for his unparalleled ability to motivate and encourage his younger colleagues to probe deeper into subjects, however basic these may seem. The first full-fledged gastrointestinal physiology and motility laboratory in India was established in 1990 at SGPGIMS, Lucknow, under the supervision of Prof. Naik. The idea of forming an Indian Motility Association was conceived by Prof. SR Naik and his mentee Prof. Uday C Ghoshal as early as 2000. However, Prof. Naik left this world in July 2002, leaving behind a dream to be still fulfilled.

Shouldering his mentor’s legacy and publishing liberally on the subject, Prof. Uday C Ghoshal stayed focused on motility disorders while many others drifted away. Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Ekla chalo re’, the book ‘The fire in my heart’ by Debasis Chatterjee, and the never-give-up spirit of the film ‘Lagaan’, a targeted effort towards the objective was re-initiated by Prof. Ghoshal in 2005. With patronage from prominent faculty such as Dr. Kok-Ann Gwee (Singapore), Dr. Sutep Gonlachanvit (Thailand), and Dr. Young Tae Bak (Korea), the Asian Neuro Motility Association (ANMA) was registered in Thailand in 2010.

It took only one year more for Prof. Ghoshal to register the Indian Motility and Functional Diseases Association (IMFDA) in 2011 at the office of the Deputy Registrar, Firms and Societies, Lucknow, with its head office at the Department of Gastroenterology, SGPGIMS, Lucknow. Prof. Ghoshal continued to mentor the association, initially as Secretary General and subsequently as its President.

Aims of the Society

(a) to provide standardized care to patients suffering from gastrointestinal motility and functional disorders in India, (b) to share knowledge about these diseases with doctors and other health care workers, (c) to increase awareness among patients, public and policy-makers, (d) to encourage research at various centers in India, and (e) to promote knowledge about gastrointestinal motility disorders and functional bowel diseases in all possible ways.

The journal

IMFDA shares an official journal, the Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility (J Neurogastroenterol Motil), started in 2010 through collaboration between ANMA and the Korean Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, with the efforts of Prof. Young Tae Bak (then President of ANMA) and Prof. Uday C Ghoshal (then Secretary General of ANMA). With an impact factor of 4.924, it became the highest impact factor journal among neurogastroenterology and motility journals in a short span. It is also the official journal of the Thai, Japanese and Chinese motility societies and the South East Asia Gastro-Neuro Motility Association, published quarterly and indexed in Science Citation Index, SCOPUS, EMBASE, EBSCO, PubMed, PubMed Central, KoreaMed, DOI/Crossref, and Google Scholar.

Congresses

The first biennial congress was held on 5th–6th August 2011 in Lucknow; the second in Mumbai in October 2013, with a mid-term meeting on 17th–18th May 2014 in Lucknow; the third in New Delhi on 6th February 2015; and the fourth in Hyderabad on 28th–29th April 2017. The 5th Congress was held in Lucknow on 7–8th May 2022, after which the Society holds annual rather than biennial congresses. IMFDA hosted the 4th Biennial ANMA Congress in New Delhi (7th–8th February 2015) in conjunction with its 3rd biennial congress, attended by more than 300 participants from 26 countries, and supported by the Rome Foundation and the Indian Society of Gastroenterology.

Member faculties have also worked on common problems such as chronic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome. The Society has published the Indian consensus on chronic constipation, with the Indian IBS consensus and Asian consensus on small intestinal bacterial overgrowth under development.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu. A small step of initiating this association was taken in 2005 in Lucknow. We wish that it moves more than a thousand miles in future with support from all its members and every physician interested in the well-being of sufferers of functional GI and motility disorders.