OPINIONS

By Prof. Refaat Kamel & Prof. John S.P. Lumley
Former World Presidents of the International College of Surgeons

We have just had one of our regular meetings in Cairo to discuss the Textbook of Tropical Surgery and the Global Academy of Tropical Health. Our discussions, and those with many authors and other contacts, have made it clear that the textbook is an Encyclopedia of Tropical Health and not just a surgical text. Promotion should thus emphasise these feature. The distribution of the book is gradually expanding across the world and we welcome your continued involvement in this promotion.

We have published individual volumes on Microbiology and Parasitology, and a text on Hepatobiliary is near completion. We are also looking to develop other small volumes from the original material. We are now considering the next edition and would welcome your views of how the book, and your section in particular, should be developed, together with opinions and/or reviews that you have received. Are you still interested in your topic? When did you last lecture on it? Would you wish for future involvement?

We have had many suggestions for potential new authors and additional topics. We therefore, aim to fill gaps in the whole sphere of Tropical Health with a possible reduction and a clearer focus of surgical material. We are looking to add the key messages to each section and are looking at future ways of introducing self-assessment. The Academy has been successful in its links and relationships with other Tropical Societies and Universities all over the world. There was a Paeleopathology section meeting on the 30^th November 2005 in Cairo. A number of authors, and others affiliated to the Academy, have suggested meetings in various locations, ideas of places and themes are welcome.

We are exploring ways of delivering certified courses and how these need to be validated to ensure standards of excellence. We are still heavily involved in promoting, fundraising and acquiring patronage for the Academy, to facilitate research, and to use the extensive network of clinicians that we now have available worldwide. There is a need for consensus documents in many areas of Tropical Health, and we wish the Academy to examine these areas, to place credibility on our desire to be a decision-making body. To this end, we have coined the motto of “decision-making is our destiny”.

Noble Pease Prize to the International College of Surgeons

On behalf of all fellows of The Ambassadors Research Foundation and staff of The Ambassadors Magazine, it is an honour for me to propose the nomination of both the International College of Surgeons and its former world presidents, Prof. Refaat Kamel and Prof. John S.P. Lumley for the Noble Pease Prize. The creation and maintenance of peace in the world has often been associated with human rights, economic prosperity and political representation. Today, there is growing evidence that health and wellbeing is also a primary precondition for existence and fostering of peace. Some of the most troubled global locales also suffer from high incidences of morbidity and mortality due to disease. In some of the world's poorest nations, mostly in the tropics, the prevalence of such diseases has created unrest and continues to threaten national stability, progress, and the overall entrenchment of peace. Throughout their travels in the tropics, they were moved by the pain on the faces of millions of people everywhere due to poverty, ignorance and disease. Over their lifetimes, the two nominees, Profs. Kamel and Lumley, have dedicated all their time, energy, and resources to help hundreds of thousands in the most impoverished nations access the highest level of medical and surgical expertise.

Both in their late seventies, the two lords of surgery have reconvened again to take on the colossal task of promoting tropical health worldwide. In addition to their instrumental lifetime accomplishments in eradicating tropical diseases worldwide, their recent efforts are a major stride for the struggle against some of the most debilitating illness that affect the developing world. From their personal funds, they have created an organization to support the education and advocacy on tropical health in much of the developing world and the battle against tropical diseases. This culminated in the creation of a unique project known as the Global Academy of Tropical Health. The academy's ambitious project of bringing together 263 contributors from every corner of the globe to author the first major encyclopaedic volume on tropical surgery has come to fruition. Their exceptional edited volume entitled Textbook of Tropical Surgery is fortified by the contributions of distinguished professionals and experts in their respective fields.

After launching their textbook at the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the WHO office in 2004, they convened a major conference to launch the "Global Academy of Tropical Health." Mass education about tropical health has also driven Profs. Kamel and Lumley to develop an online scientific bi-annual journal for mass education to help eradicate the health problems of tropical countries.

We call on all readers to send us their support for the nomination of these two determined humanitarian workers and the International College of Surgery for the Nobel Prize. If you wish to contact the Nobel Foundation directly, you may do so at http://nobelprize.org/peace/nomination/index.html

Prof. Talaat I. Farag, MD, FRCP(E), FACP, FACMG
Former Adjunct Professor, Dalhousie University
Director, The Ambassadors Research Foundation
Email: tfarag@dal,ca