Ian Donald School Book 09.indb - World Association of Perinatal ...

Chapter 2. THE HISTORY OF IAN DONALD SCHOOLDubrovnik, Croatia, headquarters of the Ian Donald School of Medical Ultrasound.happy club-like liaison between clinicians, radiologists, radiographers, physicists,engineers, embryologists, geneticists and technical staff of all types. Eachhas something to contribute and I feel strongly that no one group should excludeanother, whatever money-obsessed administrators may feel. For goodnesssake, let us keep it that way.Speaking for myself, I can say that the specialty has brought us many friendsfrom all over the world, and sonar has built an intellectual bridge betweenEast and West, as well as a bridge between medicine and engineering. Theexisting liaison between Yugoslavia and Egypt provides a very good exampleof international co-operation, largely thanks to ASIM KURJAK and MAHERMAHRAN.It is interesting that the scope of interest has now extended to the veterinaryworld, and next month I have to lecture to an audience mainly interested inracehorse breeding —a very lucrative subject, I should imagine.The ability to diagnose a number of fetal developmental defects in the firsthalf of pregnancy was, I suppose, inevitable. This facet, to me at least, is one ofthe sadder aspects of this work since, so far, so little can be done in the curativesense and the offer of termination of pregnancy is the most that one cansuggest. From all this, there has grown a natural tendency to institute a sort ofwitch hunt, especially in the case of older pregnant women who are at statisticallygreater risk. The unhappy dilemma, often unnecessarily inflicted onour patients, has to be reckoned with in advocating massive screening program.As I have already hinted, it is perhaps time I withdrew.One of my constant nightmares of years ago was that someone, one day,would conclusively show that sonar did some unexpected and unforeseenharm to the developing fetus, in spite of my own efforts and that of othersto verify the safety of the technique. The subject has greatly exercised my27