Rezvi Sheriff

Vidya Jyothi Mohamed Hussain Rezvi Sheriff, FRCP (Lon), FRCPE (Edin), FRACP, FCCP, FSLCGP, FNASSL is a Sri Lankan academic, nephrologist and physician. He served as the director of the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine; senior professor of medicine; head of the Department of Clinical Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo. He is currently serving as the Senior Professor of Medicine at General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.[1] He is also a consultant physician and nephrologist at National Hospital Sri Lanka.[2] He is widely regarded as the Father of Nephrology or either hailed as Father of Modern Nephrology and Dialysis. He masterminded and pioneered kidney transplantation in Sri Lanka. He is also the founder and owner of Western Hospital.[3]

Mohamed Rezvi Sheriff
NationalitySri Lankan
EducationUniversity of Colombo
Royal College Colombo
Zahira College Colombo
Occupation(s)Consultant physician and nephrologist National Hospital Sri Lanka, director of the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine and senior professor of Medicine, head of the Department of Clinical Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo
EmployerUniversity of Colombo
Known forCo-founder of Sri Lanka's first kidney transplant programme and dialysis unit, medical research, medical teacher, postgraduate medical educationist
TitleVidya Jyothi Professor

Education

Sheriff began his formal education at Zahira College Colombo and later received a scholarship and moved to Royal College Colombo.[4][5] He subsequently entered the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo where he obtained both Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and later Doctor of Medicine. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Ceylon College of Physicians.

Career

After qualification, he was appointed as a lecturer in medicine in the Department of Medicine under Professor Kumaradasa Rajasuriya in 1973. He obtained MRCP after completing his postgraduate training in the UK and he returned to Sri Lanka. He went onto have one of the longest academic careers in Sri Lankan university system.[6]

He and his collaborator AH Sheriffdeen set up the first transplant programme in the country in October 1985. It also turned out to be the first ever kidney transplant in Sri Lanka as it was successfully achieved with the assistance of Colombo University team which also included Geri Jayasekara.[7] The successful kidney transplant was a moral booster for many Sri Lankans who previously had to travel all the way to India to undergo such treatment. He and Surendra Ramachandran pioneered the speciality of Nephrology in Sri Lanka. Nearly 1,000 transplants have been done under his supervision.[8] He was appointed as Professor of Medicine in 1990 and eight years later he was promoted as senior professor in Medicine in 1998.[6]

He is a member of the senior advisory board to SACTRC (South Asian Clinical Toxicology Research Collaboration)[9] with Nimal Senanayake, Ravindra Fernando and Janaka de Silva. He founded the OxCol (University of Oxford Colombo link) for studies on snake bite and yellow oleander poisoning. He was president of the Sri Lanka Medical Association, Ceylon College of Physicians,[10] Sri Lanka Association for Nephrology and Transplantation, SAARC Society of Nephrology, Urology and Transplant Surgery and the Founder President of the Hypertension Society in Sri Lanka in addition to being a founder of the Health Informatics Society in Sri Lanka [11] and a councillor of the International Society of Nephrology. He is an External Examiner for MRCP in UK & Chennai. He is the Ceylon College of Physician Coordinator for MRCP Examinations in Sri Lanka. He was appointed as the President of Sri Lanka Medical Association in 2009.[12]

He has published widely in Nephrology, Transplantation, Snake Bite and Oleander Poisoning.[13]

He is also the founder chairman of Western Infirmary Hospital in Colombo, a center known for renal disease care, dialysis and transplantation.[8][14] In 2011, he was rated as the top scientist from Sri Lanka according to the Web of Science database.[15]

He retired from University of Colombo on September 30, 2014, after rendering 41 years of service.[8] During his illustrious career, his research interests included snake bites, Toxicology, Nephrology, non communicable diseases, medical education and chronic kidney disease of unknown aetiology.[6] Following his kidney transplant, he is set to undertake a major kidney transplant programme at the Kotelewala Defence University.

Honours and awards

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Honorary Fellow of the College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka and a Fellow of the National Academy of Science of Sri Lanka.

The titular prestigious honour Vidya Jyothi was conferred upon him by the Government of Sri Lanka in 1993 in recognition of his contribution to Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation in Sri Lanka. He also received a Lion International Merit Award.[16]

Controversy

In 2019, Rezvi filed complaints with the Criminal Investigation Department over some baseless allegations which surfaced in social media which revealed that he treated Zahran Hashim who was the prime suspect behind the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings.[17]

Personal life

In October 2022, he himself underwent a successful kidney transplant at Western Infirmary/Western Hospital.[7] He is diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension and was deemed to be a very high risk patient prior to the kidney transplantation.

References
  1. "Medical Council Administering medical practitioners' oath". www.dailymirror.lk. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  2. "Prof Rezvi Sheriff". Archived from the original on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  3. "Western Hospital introduces Sri Lanka's most affordable dialysis solution Mercy dialysis and ties up with world number 1 Dialysis Company to provide world class dialysis on World Kidney Day 2021 - Press Releases | Daily Mirror". www.dailymirror.lk. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  4. Farook, Text and Pictures by Ruzaik. "Founder's Day celebrations". Daily News. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  5. "Zahira College holds Founders Day | Daily FT". www.ft.lk. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  6. "Retirement of Senior Professor Rezvi Sheriff | The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka". Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  7. "From kidney transplant pioneer to patient: Personal saga of Professor Rezvi Sheriff". Print Edition - The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  8. "Grand round, felicitation and academic sessions in honour of Prof. Rezvi Sheriff | Daily News Online : Sri Lanka's National News". Archived from the original on 19 January 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  9. "SACR Governance". Sactrc.org. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  10. "History". Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
  11. "Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka (HISSL)" (PDF). Hissl.org. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  12. "Prof. Rezvi Sheriff on Sri Lanka's double burden of diseases". archives.dailynews.lk. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  13. "Articles and Books by Prof Sheriff". Cmb.ac.lk. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  14. "About Prof. Sheriff". Westernhospital.lk. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  15. "Prof Rezvi Sheriff, most prolific scientist". archives.dailynews.lk. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  16. "Vidyajyothi Professor Mohamed Hussain Rezvi Sheriff MBBS, MD, MRCP (UK), FRCP (Lon), FRCP (Edin), FRACP, FCCP, FSLCGP". Cmb.ac.lk. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  17. "Prof. Rezvi Sheriff files action against allegation". Daily News. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
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