World leaders in neurology have paid tribute to Australian headache specialist Professor James Lance CBE, AO, who recently passed away at the age of 92 in Sydney.
Writing in the journal Cephalagia, the president of the International Headache Society Professor Lars Edvinsson, says Professor Lance made a huge contribution to neurology and in particular to headache medicine.
In a tribute co-authored by IHS committee members Professors Stefan Evers and Professor Peter Goadsby, they note that Professor Lance was a pioneer clinician and researcher in headache medicine. He described several headache syndromes and invented new terms; including the term Harlequin Syndrome, He was also the first to describe headache associated with sexual activity as a distinct headache disorder.
An industrious researcher, he published over 200 papers and was the author of classic textbooks, such as A physiological approach to clinical neurology and Mechanism and management of headache.
According to the tribute, Professor Lance was the first physician appointed as a neurologist in Australia and the first Professor of Neurology. He was appointed Professor (Personal Chair) at the University of New South Wales in 1975, where he had founded the department of neurology at the newly established university in the 1960s.
Professor Lance was one of the founding members of the Brain Foundation and later of Headache Australia. He was also the foundation President for the Australian Movement Disorder Society.
“He and his associates have devoted themselves to the understanding and treatment of migraine and other headaches since 1965,” the tribute states.
Internationally, Professor Lance was one of the founders of the International Headache Society in 1982 and was president from 1987 to 1989. Under his leadership the first edition of International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD) was published in 1988
“Jim had a keen interest in both clinical headache medicine and a strong basic science involvement. He was a master clinician: Both an astute and detailed historytaker, and as elegant at physical examination as one would ever hope to see,” the tribute says.
It also notes his sense of humour and turn of phrase.
“When the term‘‘short-lasting neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctival injection and tearing’’ was first mooted, it was he who remarked ‘‘the names get longer as the attacks get shorter’’.
The Cephalagia article concludes that Professor Lance leaves an enduring legacy in headache medicine.
“As long as clinicians are taking a careful history and trying to understand the why and how of the patients they seek to serve, his contributions will endure. He was a doctor to his patients, a physician-teacher to his students and a clinician-scientist to the diseases he sought to ameliorate.
“Headache medicine was better with him, sadder without him, yet always greater for him.”