Iraqi Medical Society International thanks all the participants in the medical and annual general meeting of 24th October 09. The society wishes all his members a prosperous and a productive year.

Professor Nizar Al-Hasani was the guest speaker in the meeting.

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.

In April 2008 a medical conference was organised for a group of Iraqi and

Arab Doctors. Here are the summaries of few of the presentations in the

conference:

Dr. Nada Alwan and her team presented her views about the cancer service in Iraq and the control strategy of cancer in the country.

She mentioned that recent WHO estimates indicate that cancer is the fourth ranked cause of death among adults in countries of the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa following cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases and injuries.

According to the latest Iraqi Cancer Registry, the most common tumours are those of the breast followed by cancers of the lymphatic system, lung, brain and bladder. Childhood cancers are 8-10 times more common than in the west. The majority of cancers in Iraq are detected in advanced stages and are thus incurable even if the best therapies could be offered.

It is essential to link therapy with early detection and to adopt health education approaches for both the public and health professionals.

Accordingly, WHO embarked upon developing a cancer control strategy within the Eastern Mediterranean countries (depending upon the available regional strengths and resources); through a coordinated approach which include: Prevention, Early Detection, Treatment and Palliative Care.

Professor ElHasani is Professor of Surgery and Chairman of Scientific Council of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in Iraq. This book has been compiled with the intention of presenting thoracic surgical topics of practical importance to thoracic surgeons and post graduate medical students in the Iraqi Board for Medical Specializations.
In his introduction about the history of thoracic surgery in Iraq, Professor ElHasani mentioned that the history relates mainly to the mid 20th century, the dramatic advances occurred in the late decades of that century, and it all started by simple surgical procedures employed in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Professor ElHasani succeeded the late Professor Yusuf AL-Nuaman as Professor of thoracic surgery and inherited his services as chairman of the department at the Medical City Teaching Hospital.
Part of the contents of the book: Pulmonary hydatid disease, The scope of resection in Bronchogenic Carcinoma, The heart and the hydatid disease, Bronchial carcinoma in Iraq, Bronchogenic carcinoma, where are we now?, Basic principles in the management of critical thoracic injuries, Surgery in pulmonary tuberculosis: what I have learnt?, Achalasia of the cardia and malignant pleural effusion.
This valuable book has included abstracts in Arabic language and radiological and histological photos where appropriate.

Bladder cancer is one of the most common diseases treated by urologists. It often behaves as a field change disease in which the entire urothelium from the renal pelvis to the urethra is susceptible to malignant transformation.

The objective of this study by Mr. Usama Al-Nasiri et al is to evaluate any change in the incidence of bladder cancer in the Iraqi society over 24-year period and discuss possible risk factors beyond this change.

Registries of the documented cases of cancer in general and bladder cancer in particular over the a 24- year period extending from 1976 until 1999, among the Iraqi society were revised. Regional and national differences were considered.

The findings of the study showed that there was a rising in the total number of cases during the mid nineties but the bladder cancer rank receded to the third place.

The authors conclude that national studies are essential to verify the environmental risk factors that can probably lead to the increase in the number of urinary bladder cancer in Iraq.

Professor Abdul- Monaf AL-Jadiry from The Jordanian University in Amman was presenting this study to the meeting.

Violence is aggressive behaviour that may be physically, sexually or emotionally abusive. The aggressive behaviour is conducted by an individual or group against another, or others. It is anything that denies human integrity and leads to hopelessness and helplessness.

The World Health Organization ( “WHO”) in its first World Report on Violence and Health defined violence as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation.”

Religious and political ideologies have been the cause of interpersonal violence, and violent riots, political repression, ethnic cleansing and genocide throughout history.

The fact that Iraqi civilians are the main victims of the attacks is increasingly being stressed in reports, interviews and comments.

Results from the Iraq Family Health Survey (IFHS), which was conducted in 2006 and 2007, provide new evidence on mortality in Iraq. Violence is a leading cause of death for Iraqi adults and was the main cause of death in men between the ages of 15 and 59 years during the first 3 years after the year 2003.

Now a broad interdisciplinary effort is getting under way to explore the biological nature and origins of violence. It is also shedding new light on how environmental influences, by affecting the brain, can trigger violence. In time, these insights and discoveries could lead to practical action that may inhibit violent acts.

Professor Al-Jadirey concluded that in order to transform violence into better conflict resolution, all disciplines and sectors must have input on issues that concern them. As we all learn the origins and consequences of violence, we become better equipped to resist and prevent it in our own lives.

Whether or not a postmenopausal woman with osteoporosis is offered one of these drugs:  Alendronate,

etidronate, risedronate, raloxifene and strontium ranelate, to prevent bone fractures will depend on her age, her bone density and how many risk factors for fracture and

indicators of fragile bones she has.

In principle, alendronate is recommended as a possible treatment for preventing bone fractures in postmenopausal women who have had osteoporosis diagnosed but have not had a fracture.

If a woman can’t take alendronate, risedronate and etidronate are recommended under certain circumstances as possible alternative treatments to prevent fractures.

If a woman can’t take alendronate or either risedronate or etidronate, then strontium ranelate is recommended under certain circumstances as a possible alternative treatment to prevent fractures.

Raloxifene is not recommended as a treatment for preventing fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis who have not had a fracture.

The guidance from NICE (National institute for health and clinical excellence/UK) says that women who are 75 or over may not need a bone scan to diagnose their osteoporosis (guidance issued in November 2008).