The inaugural Paul Brand Memorial Lecture will be on Friday, Dec. 3 during the 20th anniversary of the The Diabetic Foot Update. This year’s conference “The Diabetic Foot Update 2004: A Multidisciplinary Approach” will run from Dec. 2 to 5 at the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel.
“Paul Brand embodied what it meant to know the difference between knowledge, understanding and wisdom at each level,” said Lawrence Harkless, D.P.M., professor in the department of orthopaedics. “As a physician and educator he was able to articulate his message to residents, peers and to the patient.”
Dr. Brand taught surgery at the Christian Medical College and Hospital in Vellore and became the first surgeon in the world to use reconstructive surgery to correct the deformities from leprosy in the hands and feet. During World War II he developed surgical techniques to treat the deformities of the extremities of leprosy patients. He was later able to use these same techniques in the treatment of patients with diabetes. The common component of neuropathy made the needs of the patients with leprosy and diabetes similar.
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| For his pioneering work, Dr. Brand was honored by the Queen of England with the honor of 'Commander of the British Empire.' | |
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Dr. Brand was known as a ‘Medical St. Francis of Assissi’ and his pioneering work led to many honors. In 1952 he was elected Huntarian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and in 1961 he was honored by Queen Elizabeth with appointment as ‘Commander of the Order of the British Empire.’ He was also the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Department of Health and Human Services, United States Public Health Service.
He was active in the international medical community and served on the World Health Organization committee as president of The Leprosy Mission International in London and as co-founder of the All-Africa Leprosy and Rehabilitation Training Center (ALERT) in Addis Adaba, Ethiopia.
The lecture is planned to become an annual event at the conference. One of the last lectures given by Dr. Brand before his death in August 2003, was at the 2002 Diabetic Foot Update sponsored by the Health Science Center.
Andrew J.M. Boulton, M.D., DSc(Hon), F.R.C.P., professor of medicine at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, will present the first lecture in Dr. Brand’s honor. Dr. Boulton, an authority on diabetic neuropathy, has written more than 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and has been the editor of numerous seminal texts on the complications of diabetes.
Dr. Boulton has been recognized for his contributions to the worldwide care of the diabetic foot and currently serves as chairman of the Diabetic Foot Study Group, the chairman of the Postgraduate Education for the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and the global chairman of the Diabetes Lower Extremity Research Group (DIALEX). He is also a professor at the University of Miami’s School of Medicine.
For more information on The Diabetic Foot Update conference call (210) 567-6503 or visit www.diabeticfoot.org. Free screenings for diabetics will be available as part of the conference from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4.
