FIMA Year Book 2009 - Federation of Islamic Medical Associations

Muslim ContributionsMuslim countries were grantedindependence by their colonialmasters. More recently, Muslimcontribution is better acknowledgedeven by mainstream Western media.However, the contributions of theMuslims are portrayed as invention ofan ‘ancient world’ with only peripheralsignificance to modern science. Aftergaining independence, many Muslimscientists had to travel to the Westto pursue undergraduate and laterpost graduate studies due mainly tothe lack of adequate infrastructure intheir newly independent homeland.Many successful researchers and highachieving professionals among theMuslims decided to stay in Westerncountries for the same reasons; theirown countries may not be able tosupport their career pathway for morescientific achievements. In the fieldof cardiology for example, Muslimresearchers with major and significantcontributions are mainly from SouthAsia. Names such as Salim Yusof, HamidIkram and Shahabuddin Rahimtoolaare contemporary giants who are worldfamous. All had to ply their trade andexpertise in the West, primarily inNorth America. In 2009, ShahabudinRahimtoola ( a graduate of KarachiUniversity ) was awarded the EuropeanSociety of Cardiology Gold MedalAward for his lifelong contributions inthe field. Prominent Muslim physicianscientists have also held very importantand prestigious positions, arguably themost notable being the immediate pastdirector of the National Institute ofHealth ( NIH ) in the United States ofAmerica, Dr.Elias A. Zerhouni, a worldrenowned radiologist and formervice dean of Johns Hopkins School ofMedicine.Excellent individual Muslims residingin the West aside, how have Muslimnations fared in their contemporarycontributions to medical research?A search of credible databases suchas the Medline showed a stark realitywhich we all would like to improveon. For example in 2005 there werealtogether 35,431 cited publicationsfrom 6 Muslim countries (Indonesia,Pakistan, , Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia,and Malaysia). This total is only slightlymore than that of a small Europeannation, Netherlands (35,027) and lessthan 10% that of the United Kingdom(372,243) while the United States iseven far ahead (1, 529,164 ). A sizeablecontribution made by the UnitedStates emanates from work doneby Muslim scientists working there.However on a positive note there hasbeen close to a tripling of publishedresearch output from these Muslimnations by 2009 ( 94,034). While thisis encouraging, we as a nation still lagbehind the non Muslim nations. Forexample over the same period, theNetherlands has increased their outputby 6 fold (to 220,123). Israel meanwhilepublished more than all the six Muslimcountries put together (111,842). Thisrepresents a 9 fold increase from theiroutput in 2005 (18,217). Since mostof the published work originate frominstitutions of higher learning, thisFIMA YearBook 2009115