Dr. Dipak J. Shah - Contributed DR. DIPAK J. Shah, senior lecturer in the Depar-tment of Pathology has been promoted to the rank of professor of (Anatomical) pathology at the University of the West Indies (UWI), effective May 2004. Professor Shah started his career with the University in 1979 as lecturer in the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medical Sciences. He was later promoted to senior lecturer in 1988. He has served as head of the Surgical Pathology and Electron Microscopy Units in the Department since 1996 and also as a senior consultant pathologist and renal pathologist at the University Hospital of the West Indies since 1979.
Professor Shah is recognised as one of very few experts in the field of renal pathology in the Caribbean. This has been an area of intense research and development over the last three decades, particularly in Jamaica due to the high prevalence of autoimmune renal diseases (e.g. systemic lupus erythematosus, a common illness affecting young women in the childbearing age group) and chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus.
EXTENSIVE ARCHIVE
He has been supervising the renal biopsy service since 1979 and the department now boasts an extensive archive of renal pathology indicative of renal diseases in Jamaica. This has supported his research into various aspects of renal pathology, particularly sickle cell disease and lupus nephritis.
Professor Shah has authored 34 papers and 12 abstracts published in peer-reviewed journals and has presented 23 papers at various conferences, the majority concerning renal diseases. He has been actively involved as a teacher in the undergraduate and postgraduate education programmes in the department and also plays an active role in the department's diagnostic services.
