The status of radiology in the Arab world. First world report.

Shortly after the discovery of X-rays by the German physicist Wilhelm C. Roentgen in November 1895, the first X-ray apparatus was installed in 1898 in Beirut at the Prussian Hospital affiliated since 1887 with the Medical School of the Syrian Protestant College founded in 1867 (later American University of Beirut in 1920). The first chest radiographs were produced after a long exposure time in 1900 by the Reverend Père Maurice Collangettes at the Faculté Française de Médecine (FFM) in Beirut and by Dr. Arthur Bacon and Mr. Brahim Youssef Succar, the first Lebanese X-ray technologist, at the X-ray laboratory of Prussian Hospital. In Sudan, the first X-ray was performed in 1898 during the British invasion battle of Omdurman. The first Lebanese specialized roentgenologist was Dr. Toufic Hajjar who trained in Paris from 1910 to 1912, returned to Lebanon as chief of the X-ray laboratory at the American University Hospital, built in 1905 (later American University of Beirut Medical Center in 1970). He stayed for two years and then left to Egypt. Subsequently, Dr. Naadir Qadduwra (MD 1921 from Syrian Protestant College) who specialized in roentgenology in France and Germany (1921-1923) came back and opened a private office in Beirut [1]. In neighboring Damascus the X-ray facilities were limited and operated by physicians and surgeons like Dr. Nazmi Khani. In 1943, just before Syria’s independence from France, the first trained roentgenologist, Dr. Muayyad Azm, started practicing at the University Teaching Hospital ; but it wasn’t until 1950 after Dr. Wahid Sawwaf had finished a full residency training in the United States that the modernization and expansion of facilities started, spearheaded by the building of new teaching hospitals and the Watani Hospital. In Aleppo, Dr. Tahsin Masri is credited with the establishment of the first radiological clinic. The first Saudi Arabian radiologist was Dr. Mohamad Khalid Kashogi who graduated from Damascus School of Medsicine in 1921 in Syria, and certified as specialist from University of Paris in 1932. In 1933, he installed in the “Holy city of Mecca” the first X-ray machine in Saudi Arabia. Information on the history of radiological services in other Arab countries is not available. In the last three decades modern imaging has found its way into the radiological practice throughout the region with increasing subspecialization. Interventional radiology, a specialty that started in academic centers like the American University of Beirut in the early 1970s, has expanded extensively and enjoy a protected status in some countries like Kuwait but face the same challenges from other specialties just like in other parts of the world.