I recently had the pleasure of attending the regional council meeting of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA) in Tampa, Florida on December 4 2009, with a CME presentation on the 5 for the Tampa IMANA chapter members. It was a great and informative meeting, and you can be assured that FIMA was a topic of discussion in many sessions. We all were in agreement that FIMA, as the largest medical international body, has a very important role to play in the future. The current IMANA leadership showed a great deal of interest in joining FIMA in various medical relief activities, as well as continuing the successful collaboration on joint conferences as we previously did in Morocco last year. Of note is also the fact that FIMA was first conceived of in Florida in 1981, and nearly 30 years later we have come around full circle.

Today, we have many projects and updates that I am happy to share with you. FIMA is currently planning a medical camp in Sudan from March 8 through the 13 in Khartoum and Darfur to treat cleft lips and v-v fistulas. A team of plastic surgeons and anesthesiologists will be traveling from the USA and general surgeons and urologists from Pakistan have already committed their time and efforts.

At this time, I would like to invite surgical specialists in these fields from other countries to join the camp. There is a dire need for these camps, not just in Sudan, but in many other countries as well, and whatever lessons we learn from Sudan we will be sure to apply it to other such projects. Details on this unique opportunity will be posted in the next issue.

At this time I would like to ask you all to kindly send a report of your IMA activities to be published in our FIMA e-newsletter. This is a unique vehicle to connect the world of Muslim physicians together, and we must take advantage of this opportunity.

Jazakamullah Khairun, until next time.

Dr. Parvaiz Malik,
FIMA President