CME INDIA Presentation by ⚜ Dr. M. Gowri Sankar, MD, Senior Assistant Professor, Dept. of General Medicine, Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, Coimbatore.
Today’s History Feature:
Dr. Barbara Ansell
(1923 – 2001)
💠English Physician
💠Founder of Paediatric Rheumatology
Her contributions…
🔹Ansell studied medicine at Birmingham University in 1946 and did her post-graduate training at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in Hammersmith. Also, she held the unique distinction of Fellowship of three Royal Colleges.
🔹After completion of her studies, she got appointed at the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital, Taplow. Simultaneously, she involved herself in researching on rheumatic fever in 1951.
🔹Later, she was promoted as a Consultant Physician in Rheumatology at Taplow and then she became the Head of Division of Rheumatology at Northwick Park Hospital in 1976.
🔹Subsequently, she had done her extensive research in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and developed the Classification system based on the pattern of disease presentation, which is still being used as a basis for the current ILAR (International League of Associations for Rheumatology) Classification.
🔹Furthermore, she was the first Chairman of EULAR Standing Committee on Paediatric Rheumatology and stimulated the foundation of the British Paediatric Rheumatology Group and the Paediatric Rheumatology European Society.
🔹She also found the need for new treatments and clinical trials. She had been at the forefront of most of the clinical trials for drugs of childhood arthritis.
🔹Further, Dr. Ansell recognized the importance of maintaining educational and social skills among the affected young children.
🔹So she pioneered a Team Management System with the support of professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses, social workers, teachers, orthopaedic surgeons, dentists, ophthalmologists and podiatrists.
🔹Moreover, she has authored around 360 articles in adult and paediatric rheumatology.
🔹As a tribute to her meritorious service, a BANNAR was established in her name (Barbara Ansell National Network for Adolescent Rheumatology) in UK. It is a national research portfolio covering the spectrum of disease and research methods for Adolescent and Young Adult Rheumatology.
🔹After her huge contributions in the field of medicine, she stated “My greatest contribution is training doctors from all over the world that children with arthritis are not miniature adults.”
A Day to Commemorate…
The Doyen of Paediatric Rheumatology
Dr. Barbara Ansell 🙏🏼
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