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Grzegorz Opala: developing neurological research in Poland
In Context
Profile Grzegorz Opala: developing neurological research in Poland Grzegorz Opala has been president of the Polish Society of Neurology since 2005. He has contributed greatly to the development of neurology as a medical specialty in Poland since the end of Communist rule in 1989, including a brief stint between 2000 and 2001 as Minister for Health in the Polish government. “I received a phone call from the prime minister, Professor Jerzy Buzek, and he asked me if it would be possible to come to him the next day because he wanted to talk with me”, explains Opala. During those discussions, Buzek, who was prime minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001, asked Opala to manage the Ministry of Health for a year because the previous incumbent had recently died. “During the 1980s, I was connected with the opposition and I was a member of a group that was trying to prepare for reform, believing that finally it would be needed. I was politically connected with this group of people”, he explains. “When I said to the prime minister that I would accept his invitation, I knew that it would only be for 1 year. My duty was to go back to the young people in my [neurology] department and try to give them the opportunity to learn and to develop their skills in research. But, for 1 year, I had a duty to my country.” Opala was born in 1942 and was awarded his medical degree from the Medical University of Silesia in 1968. “Our university at that time had only the one department of neurology, which was in Zabrze, and so when a new department was opened in Katowice, I moved there and finished my fellowship in neurology”, says Opala. “Since that time I have worked in the same place except for the 3 years which I spent in the United States.” Opala is the first to admit that his career is somewhat unusual; after defending his PhD thesis in 1979 he did no research until 1988, by which time he was 46 years old. During this time he was a member of the Solidarity movement (1980–81). “In the 1980s [between 1981 and 1988] Poland was under martial law. I didn’t have a passport. I didn’t have any opportunity to participate in research. So, when I received my passport for the first time at the end of 1988, I wanted to work as much as possible”, he explains. He travelled to the USA and got a job at the Valley Children’s Hospital and Metabolic Research and Analysis, a Californian company that was doing clinical trials with carnitine. “It was a very important time for me. It was the first time I was working with real researchers and even if it was mainly connected with clinical trials and drug trials it was a very good school for me and I learned a lot.”
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In 1991, Opala became a research fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. “I met some people who were very important for me, like David Margolin. David, at that time, was very interested in Alzheimer’s disease and also in Parkinson’s [disease]. I had some good opportunities to work with him, [not only] in clinical fields but also in anatomopathology and neuroradiology; so, for me, it was a good time.” Opala returned to Poland later in 1991 and used the research skills that he had developed abroad to teach young Polish neurologists about clinical research. “I came back to a different Poland. I was sure that Communism had to collapse, but I didn’t expect to live in [a] Europe like I do today”, he says. Opala successfully defended his habilitation thesis in 1993, and in 1998 he became the head of the neurology department at Katowice. In total, there are 10 neurologists who work in Opala’s department: five of them have academic positions, and five are paid by the hospital. “But all of them participate in research”, says Opala. On the clinical side, the department has 21 beds, many of which form a dedicated stroke unit. The neurologists also run what Opala calls a one-day clinic. “The patients have all the diagnostic procedures done in the morning. In the early afternoon we try to summarise and decide if it is enough. It [this way of working] is not typical in Poland and probably [it is] only in my department that we are working in this way”, he explains. “Fortunately, I am working with young and very smart people; all of them defend their PhD theses and they are also doing fellowships and specialising in movement disorders, stroke, and dementias. My main goal is to prepare these young scientists for research and to give them the opportunities that I didn’t have”, he explains. In Poland, professors of medicine generally retire at the 70 years of age, so Opala is due to stop working in 2012. “I have some years to prepare my team for independent work. I want to help them to organise, to work independently, and to mature. It is my idea to slowly go out from the position as head of department.” One of Opala’s employees is going to the Mayo Clinic for a year to experience working in US research and to build connections for future colaborations. And this is the kind of person who Opala expects to succeed him and continue to strengthen neurology research in Poland.
James Butcher [email protected]
http://neurology.thelancet.com Vol 7 July 2008
Profile Grzegorz Opala: developing neurological research in Poland Grzegorz Opala has been president of the Polish Society of Neurology since 2005. He has contributed greatly to the development of neurology as a medical specialty in Poland since the end of Communist rule in 1989, including a brief stint between 2000 and 2001 as Minister for Health in the Polish government. “I received a phone call from the prime minister, Professor Jerzy Buzek, and he asked me if it would be possible to come to him the next day because he wanted to talk with me”, explains Opala. During those discussions, Buzek, who was prime minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001, asked Opala to manage the Ministry of Health for a year because the previous incumbent had recently died. “During the 1980s, I was connected with the opposition and I was a member of a group that was trying to prepare for reform, believing that finally it would be needed. I was politically connected with this group of people”, he explains. “When I said to the prime minister that I would accept his invitation, I knew that it would only be for 1 year. My duty was to go back to the young people in my [neurology] department and try to give them the opportunity to learn and to develop their skills in research. But, for 1 year, I had a duty to my country.” Opala was born in 1942 and was awarded his medical degree from the Medical University of Silesia in 1968. “Our university at that time had only the one department of neurology, which was in Zabrze, and so when a new department was opened in Katowice, I moved there and finished my fellowship in neurology”, says Opala. “Since that time I have worked in the same place except for the 3 years which I spent in the United States.” Opala is the first to admit that his career is somewhat unusual; after defending his PhD thesis in 1979 he did no research until 1988, by which time he was 46 years old. During this time he was a member of the Solidarity movement (1980–81). “In the 1980s [between 1981 and 1988] Poland was under martial law. I didn’t have a passport. I didn’t have any opportunity to participate in research. So, when I received my passport for the first time at the end of 1988, I wanted to work as much as possible”, he explains. He travelled to the USA and got a job at the Valley Children’s Hospital and Metabolic Research and Analysis, a Californian company that was doing clinical trials with carnitine. “It was a very important time for me. It was the first time I was working with real researchers and even if it was mainly connected with clinical trials and drug trials it was a very good school for me and I learned a lot.”
578
In 1991, Opala became a research fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. “I met some people who were very important for me, like David Margolin. David, at that time, was very interested in Alzheimer’s disease and also in Parkinson’s [disease]. I had some good opportunities to work with him, [not only] in clinical fields but also in anatomopathology and neuroradiology; so, for me, it was a good time.” Opala returned to Poland later in 1991 and used the research skills that he had developed abroad to teach young Polish neurologists about clinical research. “I came back to a different Poland. I was sure that Communism had to collapse, but I didn’t expect to live in [a] Europe like I do today”, he says. Opala successfully defended his habilitation thesis in 1993, and in 1998 he became the head of the neurology department at Katowice. In total, there are 10 neurologists who work in Opala’s department: five of them have academic positions, and five are paid by the hospital. “But all of them participate in research”, says Opala. On the clinical side, the department has 21 beds, many of which form a dedicated stroke unit. The neurologists also run what Opala calls a one-day clinic. “The patients have all the diagnostic procedures done in the morning. In the early afternoon we try to summarise and decide if it is enough. It [this way of working] is not typical in Poland and probably [it is] only in my department that we are working in this way”, he explains. “Fortunately, I am working with young and very smart people; all of them defend their PhD theses and they are also doing fellowships and specialising in movement disorders, stroke, and dementias. My main goal is to prepare these young scientists for research and to give them the opportunities that I didn’t have”, he explains. In Poland, professors of medicine generally retire at the 70 years of age, so Opala is due to stop working in 2012. “I have some years to prepare my team for independent work. I want to help them to organise, to work independently, and to mature. It is my idea to slowly go out from the position as head of department.” One of Opala’s employees is going to the Mayo Clinic for a year to experience working in US research and to build connections for future colaborations. And this is the kind of person who Opala expects to succeed him and continue to strengthen neurology research in Poland.
James Butcher [email protected]
http://neurology.thelancet.com Vol 7 July 2008