Prof Samama, Meyer-Michel

by Prof Gregoris Gerotziasas on behalf of VAS

Meyer-Michel Samama – Pharm.D MD, Professor Emeritus of haematology at Hôtel-Dieu

University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, where he was formerly chairman of the Department of Haematology. He qualified as a pharmacist-pathologist, then as a medical doctor and then as Professor of Haematology from the Paris VI University School of Medicine.

His study on venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in medical patients (Medenox study) was selected to be presented at the Presidential Symposium of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis in 1999 and is still a very frequently quoted work published in New England Journal of Medicine.

MM. Samama was elected corresponding member of the National Academy of Pharmacy in 2001. He presented 3 lectures at the National Academy of Medicine. As Scientific Director at Biomnis Laboratory Dr Samama’s research interests centered on haemostasis and pathogenesis of venous thrombosis.

Main fields of focus included the diagnosis and treatment of hereditary thrombophilia and the pharmacology of antithrombotic drugs including low-molecular-weight heparins, Fondaparinux and new antithrombotic agents. He published more than 400 original articles and co-edited a number of books on clinical thrombosis and hypercoagulable states. He received a Distinguished Career Award for his contributions to haemostasis from the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis. He also received an award from the International Society of Fibrinolysis and Thrombolysis and from the Venous Thrombosis Forum for his contribution to the field. He was a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis as well as a member of the ACCP Consensus Conference on antithrombotic therapy. He sat on the review board of several journals and was a member of several professional societies.

In recent years, a priority of his research group was dedicated to new anticoagulants and their mechanism of action, and the response of various coagulation tests to their anticoagulant activity.

The highest quality, true culture, talent and scientific relevance can deeply affect the lives of students, patients and colleagues when they are an inseparable part of a strong and straightforward personality.

Prof Michel Samama by Prof Mariella Catalano on behalf of VAS

In a world that loves titles and often defends selfishness even in science, we find people like Michel Samama who break the mould, with their total openness to ideas and men, their great passion for science that does not forget the realities of life, their simplicity and modesty, the unbridgeable and natural desire to learn and teach at the same time.

The highest quality, true culture, talent and scientific relevance can deeply affect the lives of students, patients and colleagues when they are an  inseparable part of a strong and straightforward personality.

This marks the minds and lives of many as it also includes most sincere affection. This is what emerges from the recollections of those who were closest to him and the unwritten words of many others.

To these we would like to add a few notes on his beautiful contribution to the development of VAS.

He joined VAS enthusiastically, its principles, objectives and contributed immediately to the European Educational programmes and European Master in Angiology/Vascular Medicine. Later he was engaged on the VAS-Guarantors and Ethics Committee and in his final year stimulated the drafting of a specific  Document. We often had the pleasure of discussing plans with him and listen to his lectures and his remarks on scientific thinking.

Two years ago he participated for the last time at the European Angiologyl Days in Milan, with his wife who passed away only a few months later.

We will all miss enormously his advice, his bright competence and his support.

Michel Samama intensely loved the cinema and the magic of stories that remain timeless. We talked about this often, on and on, with pleasure. When a film ends there are moments of silence and darkness in which the reality of the film still seems to exist and the real world has not yet materialised. The images and emotions of the most beautiful films will  come to mind for a lifetime. “It’s like when we leave…..” he told me one day.

Thanks to Prof Samamà, thanks to Michel.