Mesopotamia

H Ramadan; F Abdulla; E Al-Shimmery

doi:10.1136/jnnp.2009.177220

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Mesopotamia

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Neurology in Iraq
H Ramadan
Published on: 14 April 2016
Neurology in Iraq; the past and the future, who is the winner?
Osama SM Amin MRCPI, FCCP, FACP
Published on: 14 April 2016

Published on: 14 April 2016
Neurology in Iraq
- H Ramadan, Specialist Registrar in Neurology
I am very grateful to Dr Amin's interest in this short letter and his useful comments. The aim of this letter was to inform PN readers about difficulties of Iraqi doctors especially neuroscience clinicians been through in light of successive damaging wars inflicted in to this country.
Dr Amin himself, names he mentioned and others (locally and overseas trained) are among distinguished hardworking neurologists in...
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I am very grateful to Dr Amin's interest in this short letter and his useful comments. The aim of this letter was to inform PN readers about difficulties of Iraqi doctors especially neuroscience clinicians been through in light of successive damaging wars inflicted in to this country.
Dr Amin himself, names he mentioned and others (locally and overseas trained) are among distinguished hardworking neurologists in Iraq. Whilst every single one of them deserves a credit and recognition for continuing practicing under hostile and dangerous circumstances, it's beyond the scope and aim of this article to mention every single neuroscience clinician.
I agree with him, so many clinicians left Iraq after recent war and only few dedicated neurologist left with challenging responsibility to continue to train young neurologists.
Conflict of Interest:
None declared
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Conflict of Interest:
None declared.
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Published on: 14 April 2016
Neurology in Iraq; the past and the future, who is the winner?
- Osama SM Amin MRCPI, FCCP, FACP, Neurologist
Many thanks to Ramadan and his colleagues for this article about neurology in the land of Mesopotamia. I have few notes:
1. The author has not mentioned other neurologists who participated substantially in the creation of the subject "neurology in Iraq," and these are Muhammed Tawfiq, Fadhil Al-Hadithy, and Adnan Al-Araji; Ajeeb Ali practiced neurology in a city in the north of Iraq and was away from the teachi...
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Many thanks to Ramadan and his colleagues for this article about neurology in the land of Mesopotamia. I have few notes:
1. The author has not mentioned other neurologists who participated substantially in the creation of the subject "neurology in Iraq," and these are Muhammed Tawfiq, Fadhil Al-Hadithy, and Adnan Al-Araji; Ajeeb Ali practiced neurology in a city in the north of Iraq and was away from the teaching environment of Baghdad. All of them were Members/Fellows of the Royal Colleges of Physicians. One only, Khalid Ibrahim (who was assassinated during the period of sectarian violence in Iraq, 2006) was certified by the Arab board of Medicine. Therefore, the three names mentioned in the article were not alone and the credit should also be given to their neurology colleagues.
2. The so-called Scientific Council of Neurology (which is part of the Iraqi Board of Medical Specializations; IBMS) collapsed totally in late 2006 (the peak of the sectarian violence) after the immigration of its founding members. Its post-graduate students were left alone facing their unknown future; many of its trainees left Iraq. The IBMS then brought three names to fill in the gap within 2 years; all of them were locally trained and certified. One might ask, "Three individuals only train, supervise researches, and examine 10 (more or less) post-graduate students?"; misuse and abuse of those trainees occurred and occurs for several reasons, which are beyond the scope of this article.
4. One of the authors himself (which is a neurologist) fled Iraq just few months prior to the US-lead war against Iraq in 2003 and returned back for unknown reasons in 2006; he did not return to his previous hospital, but to a city in the north of Iraq. Some neurologists left Iraq after 2003 not because of the current disastrous situation in Iraq, but as part of the immigration wave, which started in 2005 to deliberately empty Iraq from its resources.
In short, adult clinical neurology in Iraq, instead of moving forward after the "liberation of Iraq," has regressed profoundly and declined in efficiency to a very counterproductive way. Many people travel to a nearby country if they get a neurological disease; simply, they don't trust the "new generation of Iraqi neurologists."
By no means, this article or any eLetter would cover this subject. Anyway, as the author said, we hope that Iraq will re-take its position in the lead.
Conflict of Interest:
None declared
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Conflict of Interest:
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