The 3^rd annual medical conference of the Iraqi Medical Society International was held in London on Saturday 1/10/2011 in the presence of more than 200 members of the society. The meeting started with an opening speech by Dr. Amer Jafar, the President of the society, who invited the audience to share their experiences in medical education for the 21^st century. This subject was chosen by the IMSI committee members to be the theme of the conference for this year.

The first lecture of the afternoon was given by Prof. Ghanim AlSheikh, past sub dean of the medical school in Mosul and the Dean of Tikrit medical school in 1987 in Iraq. He presented his valuable experience of medical education in Iraq to his colleagues at the conference.

Dr. Saad Al Fattal, a medical historian, spoke about the establishment of the first medical school in Iraq. He gave a detailed presentation about his subject with a very good collection of photos of Baghdad medical school in the old days. He mentioned that Mrs. Malek Ghnaam was the first Iraqi woman to be accepted as a medical student in Iraq.

Dr. Yousar Jafar, a junior doctor from Cardiff and founder of the Student Iraqi Medical Assoication – Wales, gave a very interesting presentation about her society and talked about the concept of peer-assisted learning in medical education. Dr Yousar Jafar also mentioned the link Cardiff University has established with Hawler Medical University in Erbil, North Iraq.

Dr. Rena Al-Barzanji, a dentist working in Scotland, gave an insightful presentation on gum disease. This presentation was titled: ‘Gum disease. What has that got to do with me? I’m a doctor not a dentist!’ and talked about the importance of recognizing gum disease in patients.

Mr. Abdul Rahim Haloob, Consultant in Obstetrics  and Gynaecology in the UK, presented his experience about medical education and gave valuable information about how to progress in the UK as a doctor. His practical hints were very useful to Iraqi junior doctors who just graduated and are in need of help with this regard.

The AGM  (annual general meeting) started by 5pm, after the lectures. The members of the society elected new executive committee members on the day. The president of the society congratulated the new members and asked them to introduce the Iraqi Medical Society International to the wider community in UK and all other countries around the globe.

The society decided this year to award 5 Professors in Medicine and Surgery who contributed significantly to the health service in Iraq. They are: 1. Professor Ihsan Al-Bahrani (Physician). 2. The late Dr. Zaki AlMalah (Physician). 3. The late Dr. Moayed Al-Omery (Physician).4. Dr. Sarmed Khonda ( Obs &Gyn Surgeon) and 5. Dr. Hikmet Abdul Rassol (Surgeon).

As a new initiative from the society, it was decided that awards will be given to the newly graduated Iraqi doctors from UK Universities who attend the social event on 1/10/11. These awards were presented to: 1.Dr. Yousar Jafar (Cardiff University), Dr. Hussein Taki (Bristol University), Dr Hassanain Al-Hassani (Q. Mary University, London) and 4. Sammy Mahbouba for a BsC in Neuroscience (intercalating medical student- Bristol University). Other Iraqi graduates from medical, dental and pharmacy schools have been listed in the latest edition of our newsletter.

The Iraqi Medical Society International is organising a medical workshop as part of its efforts to boost the clinical experience of its junior Iraqi medical students and the graduates. A group of Anaesthetists led by the Excuetive Committee member Dr. Moayed Aziz, Consultant Aneasthetist in Wales is supervising the workshop. It is starting at 11AM on 21st May 2011 in the post graduate centre or the Friars in Royal Gwent Hospital/ Newport NP20 2UB

Medical student workshop poster

Dear Colleagues,
You are cordially invited for the Annual General Meeting, Scientific and the Social meeting of the Iraqi Medical Society International (IMSI) on Saturday 24^th October 2009. The meeting is to be held at Radisson Edwardian International Hotel, Heathrow/London.

Hotel address:
Radisson Edwardian Hotels
140 Bath Road, Hayes, Middlesex UB3 5AW
Tel: 020 8757 7904
Link to directions

Summer Meeting/ 7th June 2009
Newport/ Wales
The Friars/ Postgraduate Centre
Royal Gwent Hospital 

The Society has held its summer meeting for 2009 on 7^th June in South Wales/UK. 

It was a gathering in Newport, the third large city in Wales. At the beginning of the meeting Dr. Mahdi Ismail thanked the members for their efforts to participate in the society’s activities. He then mentioned that the programme for the meeting will include 4 lectures and a special session which will follow the lectures to discuss the future activities of the society. 

Mr. Asal Azzidien/ General Surgeon started the scientific programme with his lecture about surgical problems in children. He discussed few surgical emergencies in children based on his vast experience in surgery. He mentioned particularly the subject of testicular pain in children and his policy of open and see to rule out and to manage testicular torsion which could happen at any age in children and young adults. He presented slides from his theatre work in Mosul /Iraq when he managed to repair a major cut of a penis of a child after a circumcision operation went wrong suddenly. Asal mentioned as well that he recently trained about 30 junior doctors from Iraq the basic skills in surgery. The training course was in Istanbul in Turkey with a help from the Royal College of Surgeons/UK. 

The second speaker was Dr. Sudad Jawad/ Psychiatrist in Wales. He spoke about a condition of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the best technique for diagnosis and management. He mentioned that ADHD could be more common in boys than girls and it can present itself as inattention with or without hyperactivity with a persistent pattern of impulsiveness. 

The management of the ADHD patients may include medications, lifestyle modifications and counselling. 

The third speaker in the meeting was Dr. Amer Jafar/ Physician, who presented a summary of the recent medical research activity in Iraq. This review was based on his effort to communicate with our colleagues in Iraq and to view few references related to the health and medical research in homeland. 

The last speaker was Mr. Saad Al-fattal/ orthopaedic surgeon with interest in history of Iraq. He managed personally to collect hundreds of photos about old Iraq and he is keen to explain the history behind each of his photos. The title for his presentation in the meeting on 7^th June was ‘Aerial views of old Iraq’. 

On 8^th March 09 the Society met in Imperial College London in the presence of a delegation from Iraq. The scientific programme discussed several important subjects. The first speaker was Dr Abbas Latif, Consultant Paediatrician. His presentation was about the autism as a brain development disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior.  Abbas mentioned that about a third to a half of individuals with autism do not develop enough natural speech to meet their daily communication needs. It was mentioned in the discussion that followed the lecture that autistic individuals may have symptoms that are independent of the diagnosis, but that can affect the individual or the family.

The second speaker was Dr. Ali Alhasani, Consultant Radiologist. He mentioned that the clinicians should consider few factors before embarking on certain radiological investigation. Some of these factors are: Non invasiveness / cost effectiveness and high specificity with easy availability and accessibility of the radiology investigation itself.
One of the major development in the field of radiology is the Multislice CT which is a major development in diagnostic imaging. It started with 4 slice in 1998 and in 2001 the 16 slice MDCT was on the market.

In 2004 the 64 slice MDCT technology emerged which enabled the radiologists to perform cardiac CT examination properly. There are 128, 256 and even 320 MDCT at present.
Ali went on to explain few cases that he was dealing with recently.

The third speaker was Dr. Majid Rashid, Consultant Pathologist. He was speaking about the death certification system in UK. He mentioned that according to the update that he was aware of, a medical examiner system might well be in place in UK in the near future, That will make the system in the NHS more similar to the one in USA with regards of the death certification and cremation process. Majid was explaining few details regarding the cause of death and how to fill a death certificate.

The next speaker was Dr Nawfal Shareef, Consultant Paediatrician. His main subject in his presentation was about the up to date management of asthma in children. He was very keen to highlight the fact that you need to keep the treatment easy and simple. However; he acknowledged that there are few difficult cases especially in dealing with asthmatic baby of less than one year old.

Mr Saad Al-Fattal , Orthopaedic surgeon was the next speaker. He was talking about the Iraqi city Mosul and its history using his magnificent photo collection. He presented in the meeting original photos about the main bridge in Mosul and the mosques, Churches and businesses in the old city of Mosul. He described in details the life in the city in 18^th , 19^th and 20^th century Iraq.