Gabriel KalifaFrench Society of Radiology
The French Society of Radiology (SFR) has posted a tribute to Dr. Gabriel Kalifa, a pediatric radiologist who helped develop a low-dose x-ray device for spinal imaging.
Kalifa was secretary of the European Society of Paediatric Radiology from 1986 to 1994. In 1990, he met Georges Charpak, PhD, the renowned physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1993 for his invention and development of particle detectors, specifically the "multiwire" proportional chamber.
The duo collaborated to successfully develop a very low-dose x-ray device, mainly dedicated to spinal imaging. This equipment, called EOS, is now used in many hospitals.
Kalifa was a student of Dr. Jacques Sauvegrain at the Necker Enfants Malades hospital. In 1981, he became a university professor, then served as head of the pediatric radiology department at the Saint-Vincent de Paul Hospital in Paris from 1990 to 2008.
Through the Dr. Jacques Lefebvre group (then the Société Francophone d'imagerie pédiatrique et prénatale [SFIPP] of which he was president from 1989 to 1996), Kalifa drove the development of the pediatric imaging discipline guided by the principle "together is better than alone," the SFR noted.
Beyond radiology, Kalifa was "deeply humanistic, a lover of cinema, [and] sparkling with humor," the SFR stated. The society extends its condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues, it said.
