History of Paediatric Pulmonology in Bangladesh

The journey started in 1994 with fellowship training of our honorable teacher Professor Md Ruhul Amin in Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow and The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London, UK. From early 1995 Prof Md Ruhul Amin first started to organize paediatric pulmonology unit for specialized clinical services with teaching and training in Dhaka Shishu (Children) Hospital and Bangladesh Institute of Child Health (BICH). In 1995, the journey had further got momentum with fellowship training of our beloved teacher Professor ARM Lutful Kabir-from Royal Alexandea Hospital for Children, Sydney, Australia and on return he started specialized paediatric pulmonology clinical services with teaching and training in ICMH. Afterwards in the year 2000 Prof Md Ruhul Amin and Prof ARM Lutful Kabir had leant bronchoscopy hands on by attending the first Paediatric Pulmonology course for 3 weeks in Chennai organized by Respiratory Chapter of Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) in Institute of Child health & Chennai Children Hospital facilitated by Prof L Subranium, Prof. Balachandran and Prof. Vijayshekharan with the guidance of legendary Prof N Somu. In a ICMH project at government level, paediatric bronchoscope was first procured by Prof M Q K Talukder, Founder Director and Project Director of Institute of Child & Mother Health (ICMH). At that time Professor ARM Lutful Kabir had organised paediatric pulmonology unit for specialized clinical services with teaching and training in ICMH. In 2002 Prof Ruhul Amin and Prof ARM Lutful Kabir had successfully performed first bronchoscopy together in ICMH on two cases in presence of Prof. Md Rashidul Hasan, Founder President of Bangladesh Lung Foundation (BLF), marking the beginning of a new era in the history of pediatric pulmonology in our country. The journey gained further momentum when our  another beloved teacher Prof. Abid Hossain Molla joined with Prof Ruhul Amin and Prof ARM Lutful Kabir  in this glorious effort and finally our dream association Bangladesh Paediatric Pulmonology Forum (BPPF) was also formed in 2003 with three members. In 2010 Paediatric Respiratory Medicine Department was established in Dhaka Shishu (Children) Hospital and in 2011 the department got recognition for Paediatric Pulmonology sub-specialty training by Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons (BCPS) adding a new horizon in this field. Recently in 2019 Paediatric Pulmonology unit of ICMH has also got recognition by BCPS for sub-specialty training as the second institute. Five young paediatricians and members of BPPF have completed training on Pediatric Pulmonology from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi under Professor S K Kabra.