An Obituary

 

S. A. Majid Rooholamini, M.D. 1938-2007

 

 

Dr. Majid Rooholamini a respected Radiologist died suddenly late January 2007 at his home in Granada Hills California.  He was 69.

 

Dr. Rooholamini was born in the southeastern city of Kerman, Iran in 1938. 

 

After his primary education in Kerman, he set out north and entered the highly competitive University of Teheran School of Medicine. 

 

After his graduation from the medical school he left Iran and did an additional year of internship at Queen’s Hospital in New York from 1963 to 1964. 

 

He completed his residency in Radiology at Yale-New Haven University Hospital training under Dr. Richard Greenspan from 1964 to 1967.

 

He moved west to Palo Alto, California and spent one year at Stanford University doing a fellowship in angiography from 1967 to 1968.

 

He also spent time in the United Kingdom and furthered himself at the University of Cambridge.

 

Majid was passionately in love with his homeland and, as many of us did, returned to Iran and taught radiology at the University of Mash’had in Khorassan province between 1968 and 1969.

 

He also taught at Shiraz and Teheran Universities and at the Queen Mother’s Heart Center in Teheran.  He then took over the Department of Radiology at the Ministry of Health’s Shafa Yahyaian Hospital and helped to transform it to the most prominent orthopedic center and orthopedic radiology in the country.

 

He helped his mentor and friend Dr. Issa Yaghmaii found the prestigious Iranian Radiological Society which brought the Iranian radiology community together.

They held annual radiology meetings and invited the giants of radiology from the United States and Europe, not only did they find Iran a beautiful destination to visit and teach but lasting friendships were forged. 

  

Many distinguished radiologists namely Drs. Benjamin Felson, Richard Marshak, Gerald  Dodd, Jack Edeiken, Arthur Clement from the U.S., Clement Forré from France, Anders Lünderquist and Boisson from Sweden helped elevate these meetings to an international status.

 

The final task during his career in Iran was to set up a modern radiology training program for the Ministry of Health.  This eventually became his “baby”’ and he devoted hours and hours of his time planning and making sure the residents rotated to other centers, including this author’s (Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Teheran).

 

Due to the special circumstances in Iran, Majid left his beloved country one more time in 1984 and take his family to Lund in Sweden.  After completing a visiting fellowship in Lund he moved to the University of Iowa and taught there from 1985 to 1988.

 

In 1988 Majid moved to California and joined his old-time friend Dr. Issa Yaghmaii at UCLA Olive View Medical Center and helped him establish the North American Iranian Radiological Society (NAIRS).

He quickly moved up through the ranks and became professor of radiology and deputy chairman of radiology and Director of residency program, positions he held until his demise.

 

Dr. Rooholamini is survived by his beloved wife and his daughter Sahar Rooholamini who is currently finishing her medical school training at Stanford University.

 

The Iranian Radiological Societies here in the United States and Iran and all of his friends, colleagues and especially his former trainees will dearly miss him.

 

 

 

Farzin Eftekhari, MD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Houston Texas