Unravelling the mysteries of heart disease

18th Ace Koch Memorial Oration on November 22

Everybody knows that heart disease is one of the biggest killers of human beings, but even medical science has not yet fully understood its causation.

Everybody also knows that the World Health Organisation is humanity's authoritative guardian of health, but even many Sri Lankan medics don't know that one of Sri Lanka's most distinguished physicians, Professor Shanthi Mendis is Head of the WHO's Cardiovascular Diseases Programme.

The orator

The Physiological Society of Sri Lanka is glad to announce that Professor Shanthi Mendis has graciously accepted its invitation to her and that she will fly all the way from Geneva (at no cost to the PSSL) to deliver the ACE Koch Memorial Oration for 2005.

Professor Shanthi Mendis, MBBS, MD, FRCP, FACC, one of the most brilliant products of the Peradeniya Medical School, was Professor of Medicine at that School from 1991 to 2000, and the Head of its Department of Medicine from 1995 to 2000, before she took up her position in the WHO.

From 1999, she had been Advisor to the WHO for Development of Global Strategy for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases.

By far the most dangerous non-communicable disease is heart disease. In the oration she will deliver at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, she will lay bare the ways in which heart disease wreaks havoc on people. The formidable technical title of her scheduled oration is: Unravelling the mysteries of the pathophysiology of heart disease.

Professor ACE Koch

Professor Arthur Cecil Elsley Koch (1903 - 1969) in honour of whose memory the oration is held, belonged to another era, another century, indeed, another millennium.

He happened to be the first native citizen of our country to hold the post of Professor of Physiology in Sri Lanka's oldest medical school, the Colombo Medical School, which came into existence in 1870.

The next medical school, the Peradeniya Medical School was created in 1962. Today, there are seven, the latest being the Faculty of Medicine of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka in Batticaloa.

The best products of our medical schools have proved themselves to be as good as those of any medical school in the world and a large part of the credit for this must go to pioneering great teachers like Professor ACE Koch. Professor Koch himself had been trained in the University of Oxford by Professor CG Douglas, the world-famous respiratory physiologist.

He could not help inculcating in his proteges something of the high academic standards he had imbibed at Oxford.

It is noteworthy that this year's orator, Professor Shanthi Mendis learnt her physiology under Professor Valentine Basnayake, who is himself a pupil of Professor Koch.

Professor Koch had arranged for Professor Basnayake to acquire his doctorate in Physiology at the University of Oxford.

It is a matter of great satisfaction that Professor Shanthi Mendis is the current Head of the WHO's programme concerned with the prevention of the havoc wreaked by one of the biggest killer diseases of human beings on earth.

European influence

At a time like the present, it is perhaps good to remember that the influence of European culture on our country has not been, an unmitigated evil. Professor ACE Koch was a lineal descendant of the Dutch invaders of Sri Lanka and he is just one of the many such Dutch Burghers who made Sri Lanka their home and served the country and its people with great dedication.

Professor Koch's influence on me was so great that he effectively determined the direction of my medical career. I have elsewhere called him my fairy godfather.

Those who wish to participate in this year's ritual oration to honour his memory for the 18th unbroken year, are most welcome to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, on November 22 at 6.00 p.m. As a spin-off, you will receive a dose of the best available advice on how to avoid heart disease from one of the WHO's leading authorities on the subject, Professor Shanthi Mendis.

- Professor Carlo Fonseka