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Volume
3, Issue 1 |
Contents Summary of Minutes, 12th Council Meeting in Dubai Ibn Al-Nafis Junior Pathologist Award The
Arab Division of the International Academy of Pathology: The
Beginnings and the |
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Editorial |
This newsletter returns to you after a long interruption since October of 1989. Drs. Yahia F. Dajani and M. S. Adnani edited the first four issues starting in April 1988. This letter functions as an annual communication medium among the Arab pathologists around the world. It aims to communicate regional practice ideas, views, experiences, and job opportunities in the Arab world. Brief news from the council and from the mother IAP organization can also be communicated. Work is underway to have this newsletter published as part of a Web Page, which is dedicated for the Arab Division of the International Academy of Pathology. Your contributions of any topic of interest to the Arabic pathologists are welcomed. |
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A Message from the President Gazi Al Zaatari, MD Chairman Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, American University of Beirut, Lebanon |
It gives me great pleasure and pride to address you on the occasion of renewed publication of the Newsletter. Over the past decade, our Division has shown demonstrable growth and it has been quite gratifying to witness the cooperative and enthusiastic participation of its membership in a number of activities. The scientific meetings have become an important annual pilgrimage for many of us. In addition to their scientific value, they have become a critical venue to exchange ideas, restructure our mode of operation, and most importantly, to strengthen our friendship in the traditions of our rich Arab culture. Despite the young age of our Division, the economical pressures, and the regional conflicts, we have faced up to the challenge before us and have been able to carry on with the mission of the International Academy of Pathology. The path before us is quite long and tortuous; the survival of any organization is solely dependent on the vitality of its membership. Therefore, I call on you to join forces to ensure holding our Division to the high standards of our profession and specialty. I invite you to contribute any ideas or suggestions that will go to accomplish the above stated objective. Hopefully, this Newsletter will serve as a starting and useful vehicle of communication and I am hopeful the in the near future, we will be able to supplement this by electronic means too. I salute all editors who made this Newsletter happen and I will be looking forward to see you all in Damascus in September for our 13th meeting. |
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Summary of Minutes, 12th Council Meeting in Dubai |
The most significant issues, which were discussed during the last Council meeting in Dubai, are highlighted below to keep you updated with the present and the future activities of the Arab Division of the International Academy of Pathology (IAP-AD). Review of the constitution and bylaws was the central item on the agenda. All councilors were requested to review the current bylaws of the AD and other societies of pathology. A subcommittee will review the recommendation of the council members and issue a draft for approval during the 13th Annual Meeting in Damascus, Syria. Another important issue, which was discussed, was the proposal of establishing an Arab School of Pathology. Dr. Kristin Henry proposed the idea and presented the council with the support from the British Division. The members expressed their appreciation of the continued support from the British and the French divisions and pledged to keep strong ties with them. Dr. G. Zaatari announced that the Spanish division has expressed interest in supporting the AD and tentatively proposed a joint conference with the Spanish division in 2004. In addition it was agreed, that the council should strengthen the ties with the Arab pathologists throughout the world. To support this idea, a mailing list for the Arab pathologists abroad will be prepared and a few seats on the council will be allocated to appoint distinguished Arab Pathologists abroad as Councilors. It was also decided to contact the Arab Board of Medical Specialties in Syria to include the Arab Board of Pathology on its agenda. Dr. Samir S. Amr proposed establishing an archival system and a history committee to keep track of the events of the Arab division. A subcommittee was established and Dr. Amr was named as the Archivist of the AD. From the organizational administrative items there was consensus agreement of the need to establish a well-organized central office with secretarial support, an official journal and newsletter for the Division, and a Web Page. Finally the members had accepted a proposal from Dr. F. Al Dayal to host the 14th Congress in Saudi Arabia. |
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Ibn Al-Nafis Junior Pathologist Award |
Dr. Najib Haboubi from, Manchester, UK, a long time supporter of the Arab Division, proposed establishing a prize to be named after Ibn Al- Nafis, for young pathologists in training who are less than thirty years of age. This prize includes a certificate and a monetary award of $250. Dr. Haboubi pledged to donate money for the first three years of this prize. The first recipient of this prize was Dr. Linda Abed from Algeria for her paper entitled "Adnexal Skin Tumors", which was presented at the 8th annual meeting in Amman, Jordan in September 1996. The second winner was Najla Fakhreddine at the 9th meeting, which was held in Beirut 1997. No award was given at the 10th meeting, which was held in Alexandria, Egypt. The prize was given to Dr. Fathi Bougrine from Tunisia at the 11th meeting, which was held in Soussa, Tunisia. His poster presentation was entitled " Detection of Epstein Barr Virus by Tyramine Amplified In Situ Hybridization (Dako Genpoint Technique) in Lymphoma of the Digestive tract and of the Cavum". At the 12th meeting in Dubai, UAE, the award was given to Dr. Fella Terkmani from Algeria for her paper entitled "Pneumatosis Cystoides Intestinalis, Report of five cases". This award is designed to stimulate the participation and the competition among the young pathologists around the Arab world.
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The Arab Division of the International Academy of Pathology
The Beginnings
and the Samir
S. Amr, MD |
On a warm sunny day in April 1988, a group of 25 pathologists from several Arab countries gathered at a meeting hall at Amra Hotel in Amman, Jordan. That meeting was the culmination of activities which took over 2 years to have a group of Arab pathologists who belonged to other Divisions of the IAP to get together to establish an Arab Division. This group was then known as the IAP Arab member group. Dr Yahia F. Dajani was the dynamic force behind assembling this group together. He invested lots of time and energy to make the necessary contacts and to hold the first scientific and organizational meeting. Dr Dajani stated in an article he wrote for the Newsletter of the IAP Arab member group that the first mention of an IAP Arab Division came from Professor Roger Cotton during a visit to Jordan in 1985. He came then by invitation of the British Council to look into the status of pathology in Jordan and the Occupied West Bank. He gave us a slide seminar at the University of Jordan. Professor Cotton mentioned vaguely that some moves to establish an Arab Division in the past did not materialize. The seed was planted. During the IAP meeting in Vienna in 1986, Dr Dajani contacted Dr. Lesli Sobin, Secretary of IAP at that time and suggested the idea of establishing an Arab Division. Dr Sobin welcomed the idea, and proposed to Dr Dajani that contact be established with pathologists in the region, and to come to the next IAP US/Canadian Division meeting in Chicago in 1987 to draw a clear plan to start the Division. Dr Dajani made the necessary contacts and was able to recruit 25 pathologists from 7 Arab countries who expressed their support and enthusiasm for the idea. In March 1987, he traveled to Chicago, and met with members of the International Council of IAP. It was agreed at that meeting that those 25 pathologists would join the IAP as a group named "IAP Arab Member Group". This group must have a meeting in the spring of 1988, and should establish a constitution and bylaws, and elect a council. Dr Dajani would act as a temporary secretary-treasurer for the group. After many personal contacts, phone calls and faxes (no E-mails in those days), the meeting was set to be held on April 14, 1988.
You may consider this gathering as the birthday of our Division. During this one-day meeting, 11 papers were presented by the participants who came from Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates. Two lectures were also given by guest speaker: one related to breast pathology by Dr Sami Shousha from Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK and the other was to immunoperoxidase techniques delivered by Dr Mohammad Adnani, Professor of Pathology at the University of Kuwait. Inspite of this short meeting, quite significant steps were taken during its proceedings. A council was established. Dr M. Adnani from Iraq was elected as the first President. Dr Dajani was elected as Secretary, Dr. Abdalla M Khalil was President elect, and Dr Mohammad Faisal Kamal was Treasurer. Two other members were elected as Councilors: Dr Ragaa M Abdel Wahab and myself. During the first meeting of this council, constitution and bylaws were submitted by Dr Dajani for discussion, and were approved after some amendments. The council delegated Dr Dajani to prepare an application to be submitted to the IAP International Council during its IAP Meeting in Dublin in September 1988. Dr Dajani submitted an application to Dr Sobin with an attached copy of the constitution and bylaws. I went to Dublin to do some lobbying for our group and met Professor Cotton and Dr Sobin, and expressed to them our hopes for establishing the Division. The IAP International Council discussed this issue. Some Council members raised a question about the geographic boundaries covered by the Division. The Council voted that a Division be established contingent on resolving this question. The Subcommittee on Constitution was asked to study this matter further. The subcommittee believed that in addition to defining the geographic area, the geographic boundaries should be reflected in the name of the Division. The subcommittee suggested a name: "Middle Eastern Division". I was briefed by Dr Sobin in Dublin on the outcome of these deliberations, and was asked to convey this to Dr Dajani and our Council. I wrote to Dr Dajani on September 21, 1988 a letter briefing him about my contacts with the Council and warned him about the term suggested by some members for our Division. Dr Sobin sent a letter to Dr Dajani to that effect on October 13, 1988. The suggestion of having a "Middle Eastern Division" was quite annoying and disturbing to us, because it may result in the inclusion of some non-Arab countries in the Division, some who already had their established Division. Dr Dajani wrote a lengthy letter on October 29, 1988 to Dr Sobin explaining to him our point of view, and making it clear that the Division will include all the Arab countries which are officially members of the Arab League, thus defining the geographic area of the Division. Dr Sobin who resigned as a Secretary of IAP forwarded the letter to the new Secretary, Dr Jack Layton. Another letter was sent to Dr Layton explaining the situation of our Division and its composition. At the following meeting of the IAP International Council in San Francisco in March 1989, the council approved our Division as the "Arab Division".
Third Meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 1990 Our second scientific meeting was held once again in Amman on May 7 and 8, 1989. We displayed proudly our hard-earned name "Arab Division of IAP". There were 23 papers and four lectures. Our guest speakers were Professor Roderick MacSween, UK (Drugs and the liver; biliary duct pathology), Professor Nikki Agnantis, Greece (Prognostic markers of breast cancer), Dr Peter Herdson, Saudi Arabia (Postgraduate pathology training in Saudi Arabia). In addition, the new Secretary of IAP, Dr Layton attended the meeting. He made several suggestions during our council meeting, among them establishing subcommittees to handle various activities of the Division. Dr Layton was impressed with the good organization of the meeting, the number of attendees and their enthusiasm. At that meeting, we elected Dr Tahseen Al Saleem, Iraq as a new Council Member. Dr Frank Kiel from the National Guard Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia submitted an invitation from Dr Suleiman Al Thukair, Director of Medical Affairs at that Hospital, to host the next meeting in March 1990. Dr Adnani also requested to host a meeting in Kuwait in 1991, and Dr Al Hasso from Mousel, Iraq submitted another request to hold a future meeting in his city. The enthusiasm for the Division was building up. The Third meeting in Riyadh lasted for 3 days (March 4-6, 1990). The organizers at the National Guard Hospital, especially Dr Frank Kiel, did a superb job. In addition to the scientific program (16 oral presentations, 8 posters, 6 lectures and 5 workshops by 4 guest speakers), they secured accommodation on the grounds of the Hospital for some of our members and provided free food services for all the participants during the meeting. The guest speakers were Dr John Batsakis, USA (Carcinoma of head and neck), Dr Marie Valdes-Dapena, USA (Pediatric pathology), Dr I Friedman, UK (ENT pathology), and Dr B Nathwani, USA (Lymph node pathology). Over 100 pathologists and other physicians attended the meeting. Close to the time of the meeting, some differences between the members of the local organizing committee surfaced resulting in changes that resulted in few delays in visas for some members. However, this was overcome and the meeting was successful by all standards. At the council meeting, it was decided to have a meeting in Kuwait in 1991, a meeting in Mousel, Iraq in 1992 and the following meeting in 1993 will be held in Cairo. The invasion of Kuwait on August 1, 1990 totally upset all of our plans. A huge rift took place on the Arabic political scene with massive movement of people and breakdown of Arab unity. The following second Gulf War had a long lasting impact on the lives of the people in the area. Our Division was about to collapse, with two proposed places for meetings are totally out of the picture due the new circumstances. Dr Dajani and the council members kept in touch trying to find ways and means to keep the Division intact to carry its mission of promoting pathology in the Arab World. |
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IBN AL-NAFIS
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Ala-al-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali Ibn Abi al-Hazm al-Qarshi was born in 1208 A.D in a small town near Damascus called Karsh. He received his education at the Medical College-Cum-Hospital Founded by Nur Al-Din Zangi. In addition to being a renowned physician, he was a linguistic, a historian, and a philosopher. He was also considered an expert on Shafii School of jurisprudence. After acquiring his expertise in medicine and jurisprudence, he moved to Cairo where he was appointed as the first Chief Physician at the famous Al-Mansuri Hospital and the Dean of the School of Medicine in 1284 A.D. There he trained a large number of medical specialists, and wrote many books in medicine and theology. Ten of his books were in medicine. The most famous of his books was "Mujaz Al-Qanun" (Summary of the Canon). In this book he criticized the shortcomings of Ibn- SinaŐs book and of GalenŐs views and added to them. A number of commentaries were written on this book. Another famous book embodying his original contribution was on the effects of diet on health. Entitled Kitab al-Mukhtar fi al-Aghdhiya. The most extensive of his books was Al-Shamil fi al-Tibb, which was designed to be an encyclopedia comprising 300 volumes, but it could not be completed due to his death. Ibn Al-Nafis used to write detailed commentaries on early works, critically evaluating their ideas. One example of his commentaries was the one he wrote on Hippocrates' book. His major original contribution of great significance was his discovery of the blood's circulatory system, which was re-discovered by modern science after a lapse of three centuries. He was the first to correctly describe the constitution of the lungs and gave a description of the bronchi and the interaction between the human body's vessels, air, and blood. Also, he elaborated on the function of the coronary arteries as feeding the cardiac muscle. Ibn-AL Nafis was known for his own original contributions, which were depended on careful investigation and observations, regardless of whether or not these fit with the teaching and theories of those who preceded him. He used to start his day after the dawn prayers by making rounds at the hospital followed by case discussion with his students and colleagues. His evenings were spent in reading writing, and discussing medicine and philosophy with his guests at his beautiful house in Old Cairo. He died in 1288 A.D. In his will he donated his house, library and clinic to the Mansuriya Hospital. He was a true scholar with an independent character. References:
1. Qatayyah S. The Arabic Physician Ibn Nafis (in Arabic). 1st Ed. Beirut:
Arabic Corporation for Studies and Publication, 1984:37-43. |
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
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14TH CONGRESS OF THE ARAB DIVISION OF THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF PATHOLOGY
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24TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF PATHOLOGY
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IBN SINA CONGRESS OF PATHOLOGY, MOLECULAR BIOLOGY |
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CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS NEWSLETTER WASIM F.
RASLAN, MD, PHD IAP-ARAB
DIVISION NEWSLETTER |
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