Two days after I attended Dr. Robyn Barst’s funeral in Yonkers, N.Y., Julia Friederich (PHA's International Associate) and I flew across the world to Saudi Arabia. We had been invited to attend the Saudi Association for Pulmonary Hypertension’s (SAPH) educational meetings, the Sixth Annual Pulmonary Hypertension Meeting and Third Pulmonary Hypertension in the Young Assembly.
The two events were more than 6,000 miles apart, but they had an
extraordinary connection. The SAPH
meeting was opened by the Conference Chair, Dr. Maha Al Dabbagh,
a pediatrician specializing in PH. She
began with a tribute to Dr. Barst, describing her contributions to the
field. This was followed by SAPH
president, Dr. Majdy Idrees, asking
the participants to stand for a moment of silence. Robyn
Barst’s reach and contributions were indeed global…in 2008, she had helped
develop the Saudi guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of PH.
The two days of SAPH meetings were important in expanding
knowledge of PH in the region with attendance from many nations. I was particularly interested to learn about
the PH experiences in many nations in the region, including Qatar, the United
Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Sudan. These presentations were
different from those I usually hear and demonstrated both similarities to and
differences from our own experience in the U.S.
An important reason for our attendance at the meeting was a leadership discussion on how PHA could assist SAPH in the development of a patient
structure. It is always exciting to me to
see physicians interested in building patient support and leadership structures
– and always something PHA is anxious to support in whatever way we can. Whenever and wherever PH leadership and awareness grow, we
all become stronger in the fight against this disease.
It was a wonderful experience. We thank our hosts at SAPH
and look forward to rapidly evolving this partnership.
