Last month, we lost a good friend of Doody Enterprises, Dr. Riad Barmada, who died at the age of 84 on January 10th, 2014.

Dr. Barmada was one of the first Editorial Review Group Chairs to sign up to review for our then-unknown book review service in 1993. He served in that capacity until July 2013, and in the 20 years he helmed the Orthopedics Review Group, we sent him 1,341 books and he oversaw reviews of an astonishing 787 of them! We will be forever grateful to Dr. Barmada for his generous contribution to the success of Doody’s Review Service.

A native of Syria, Dr. Barmada received his MD from Syrian University Medical School in Damascus in 1956. He completed a year of general surgery training at Damascus Hospital before coming to Chicago, where he completed an internship at Walther Memorial Hospital, followed by residencies in orthopedic surgery at St. Elizabeth Hospital, Illinois Masonic Hospital, and the University of Illinois Hospital. In 1967, he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine as a research associate and advanced quickly, becoming professor of orthopedics in 1972 and serving as head of the Department of Orthopaedics from 1984 to 1998. He retired in January of 1999, but remained as professor emeritus and was an active participant in the educational functions of the department.

He was a member of numerous associations, including the International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, American Orthopaedic Association, American Medical Association, and Illinois State Medical Society, Dr. Barmada was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, president of the Chicago Committee on Trauma, and served as president of the Illinois Orthopaedic Society.