Mostafa Elbaba
Case Report and Nobel Prize after 27 Years
Mostafa Elbaba
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) & Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q)
mostafaelbaba@gmail.com
This is an inspiring story about a urologist working in a small town in Germany called Bad Dürkheim. He preferred to stay with his wife and children in a quiet place in the Black Forest village of Wambach after a long journey ended in prison during World War two. On Thursday, October 18, 1956 he was contacted from Sweden after completing his surgery list because he was chosen as Nobel Prize laureate in that year. Surprisingly, this was not in urology, but in the field of cardiology. Twenty-seven years earlier, he reported for the first time introducing a catheter in human heart; his aim was to find a non-surgical solution for repair of the mitral valve. He convinced the operating room nurse to allow him to insert the catheter into her heart. He deceived her, however, and after fixing her to a chair, he did the first and successful self-experimentation on himself, and later he reported the results in a medical journal called the “Klinische Wochenschrift”. He was later dismissed from his medical position for his actions. Two American physicians read his paper and developed his work on cardiac catheterisation further, and finally, the three persons shared the Nobel Prize. He was a heavy smoker and worked in the field of heart disease for a period, but at the age of 75, he died in 1979 because of heart failure. This story contains several lessons for young physicians, and the most important one is the value of documentation through the case report. Some consider the case report to be the lowest form of evidence on the pyramid of evidence-based medicine, but this story may make them change their mind.
The Story of Exporting Medicine to the Western World
Mostafa Elbaba
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) & Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q)
mostafaelbaba@gmail.com
Salerno was a town in southern Italy within the Kingdom of Sicily. Salerno remained under Byzantine control until the Normans wrested Sicily from the Muslims, and Salerno itself from the Byzantines. “The Schola Medica Salernitana” was founded in Salerno in the 9th century. However, the theoretical science of this school was limited, and medical practice there was based on empirical wisdom gleaned from experience with disease prevalence and herbal and other remedies. Before the arrival of Constantinus Africanus in Salerno around 1065, medical care in the medieval world was directed to both physical and spiritual health and was limited to homes, monasteries and some institutions. Constantinus travelled with a rich cargo of books. He saw that Salerno was far behind the Arabs, so when he was suspected of practicing magic and exiled from his country three years later, he loaded his library on a ship bound for Salerno. The voyage was marred by a storm that rose up and destroyed many of his books. It has been said that he fell into the sea during his journey and lost part of his treasure, but he translated what he salvaged. His native language was Arabic, but he was also fluent in Greek, Latin, and other languages; the skills he acquired during his extensive travels ended by crossing the Mediterranean Sea. He translated books of theory of medicine, but his translation of practical medical books have not survived. He translated medical works into Latin from Arabic by the outstanding figures in Islamic medicine, and also translated works by Greek medical authors. His own book is called “The Total Art” (Pantechne) which is based on the “Royal Book” by Ali ibn al Abbas. From the knowledge Constantinus provided, Salerno medical School became Europe’s first organized medical school, whose medical teachings in Christian Italy were disseminated later to the entire western world.
Discovery of the Greatest Three Therapeutic Interventions
Mostafa Elbaba
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) & Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q)
mostafaelbaba@gmail.com
In this series, the author summarizes the fantastic stories behind the discovery of the most three important medications affected the development of modern medicine in the 20th century. Not only because the discoverers were granted Nobel prizes shortly after, but these three medications were the core of medical treatment subjected to further pharmaceutical development. Many medications emerged from them and have been used by physicians in daily practice up to date. Insulin was the first to be discovered in 1921 in Canada. The orthopedic surgeon Frederick Banting who discovered insulin with his assistant by a “coin toss” was the youngest person at the time to win the Nobel prize at age of 32. Sulfonamide was the second discovery in 1935; it is the first antibiotic known after “Salvarsan,” that was named “the magic bullet” but which faded later. “Prontosil” saved the lives of many people especially during World War II after its first trial by a German physician on his daughter, who suffered from a finger infection. Unfortunately, he declined the Nobel Prize by order of his country authorities due to political conflicts, but later he received the diploma and the medal in 1939. The third in these important medications was cortisone. After his discovery of thyroxine, the endocrinologist Edward Calvin Kendall at the Mayo clinic collaborated with a clinical rheumatologist on extensive work on hormone extraction and application on chronic rheumatic patient. They successfully use “cortin” as a new anti-inflammatory medication in 1948. Although he had an abnormal voice because of congenital cleft palate, his speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony in 1950 was very popular and his live cinematic presentation was fascinating. Today, derivatives of insulin, sulfonamide and cortisone are essential medications. Insulin is the gold standard treatment for diabetes mellitus especially type one. Sulfonamide is not only the first synthetic antibacterial, but also the prototype of many medications like diuretics and anticonvulsants. Corticosteroid is the first line treatment in a large number of medical illnesses like inflammatory, autoimmune disorders and cancer.
Three Groups of People Behind the First Nobel Prize
Mostafa Elbaba
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)
Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q)
mostafaelbaba@gmail.com
In this series, the author explores the story of the inauguration of the first Nobel prize. In spite the will of Alfred Nobel, it was not easy to make the first prize happen. Three groups of people made great efforts to implement the prize and made it real. The first group was Alfred Nobel’s family some of whom did not agree about leaving money to the public. The second was Nobel’s laboratory assistants. They were basically two engineers, and they were able to transfer Alfred’s money and assets in a very interesting way from France to Sweden. The third was Nobel’s trusted physicians. Three physicians made different contributions to initiate the first prize in five disciplines as Nobel had initially wanted. One of them was fluent in several languages, edited and authored numerous articles, including his textbook of Human Physiology which was admired by his friend Pavlov. He nominated Pavlov twice for the Nobel prize and succeeded on the second time. He himself was nominated twice for the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine, but both were unsuccessful! The second physician was invited to work at Alfred Nobel’s laboratory in Paris and spent 5 months with Nobel. The third was also fluent in several languages and able to establish the Nobel Foundation in 1900. Moreover, he was the President of the Nobel Committee and Nobel Assembly for 17 years. In this talk, the author will also answer many interesting questions about Alfred Nobel’s life; like why he chose those 5 disciplines specifically for his prize? What was the impact of his emotions on the prizes? What was the effect of Alfred’s family on his development to the level he reached?
BIOGRAPHY
Mostafa Elbaba is an Egyptian pediatric nephrologist. He graduated in 1989 and received his master’s degree in pediatrics from Ain Shams University, Cairo-Egypt in 1993. Since 2011, he has worked at the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar, where currently he is the head of Pediatric Nephrology and chairman of pediatric education and simulation in HMC. He is also an assistant professor in clinical pediatric medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar (WCM-Q). Moreover, he is a core faculty member in the pediatric residency program in Qatar and the lead of pediatric simulation at Qatar University for year 5 medical students. In 2015 he was granted a master’s degree in medical education and an advanced certification in simulation in 2018. He has many publications in the history of medicine and significant contributions on Wikipedia.org. Apart from his medical qualifications, he is certified in the history of medicine, arts and religions. Elbaba is a public writer and author in both the English and Arabic languages; currently, he has 11 published books in Arabic in different disciplines.