Columbia University Seminar on Iranian Studies

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SEMINARS

SEMINAR ON IRANIAN STUDIES

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The seventh meeting of the 25th consecutive year of the Columbia University Seminar on Iranian Studies for the academic year 2012‐2013 will take place on: Friday April 12, 2013, 5:30pm at the Faculty House of Columbia University.

Our speaker will be:
Dr. Fereydoun Ala who will lead the discussion on the topic of The Development of Blood Transfusion in Iran

Abstract:

In Iran, fragmented and unregulated emergency blood services of a sort, were first established early in the 1940s. However, in every case, whether in university, private or government hospitals, blood for transfusion was purchased through shady dealers, from professional donors drawn from the dregs of society, who were often anaemic, drug‐addicted and sick.

In the early 1970s, in response to growing national needs, a National Iranian Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS) was established by decree, with the aim of regulating and centralizing transfusion science and medicine; persuading and recruiting the urban public to donate their blood voluntarily, and replacing the prevailing dangerous practices and rampant commercialism, with safe blood, altruism, modern technology and science.

By the eve of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the NIBTS had already exceeded its aims and aspirations, to become the most advanced, well‐developed Services in the Region, based entirely upon voluntary, non‐remunerated blood donation.

Bio-Notice

Dr. Fereydoun Ala received his AB from Harvard, 1953; MB CHB from Edinburgh University Medical School; MRCP, Member of the Royal College of Physicians (Internal Medicine & Haematology), 1963; FRCP, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1970; FRCPath, Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, 1991.

He served as Director of the National Blood Service, West Midlands Region; Honorary Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Haematology at Birmingham University Medical Faculty; Councilor, International Society for Blood Transfusion (Retired); Currently Honorary President of the Iranian Comprehensive Haemophilia Care Centre in Tehran.

He also served as the Founding Director of the Tehran University Clinical Haematology Department, Pahlavi Hospital, from 1969‐81 where he also served as a member of the teaching faculty; Founder and Director of the National Iranian Blood Transfusion Service from 1973‐81; Founding Director of the Iranian Haemophilia Society and World Federation of Haemophilia Training Centre in Tehran; Medical Secretary, the World Federation of Haemophilia from 1970‐74; WHO Consultant in Transfusion Medicine from 1975—.

To reach the Faculty House:

Enter the Wien Hall Gate on 116th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive. Walk past Wien Hall, then turn right to the Faculty House.