In Memoriam

We are saddened to report that Nina Kagawa, R. EEG T. passed away on Saturday morning, September 8, 2007. Many of us had the opportunity to know Nina, but others may not have had the chance. She was an integral part of the neurophysiology program at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas and its affiliated hospitals from the late 1940s until her retirement from The Methodist Hospital in Houston in the late 1990s.

Nina devoted her professional life to the development of electroencephalography (EEG) in medical practice. For nearly 50 years, she worked in the field of EEG and clinical neurophysiology, initially at Hermann Hospital and then for over 30 years at The Methodist Hospital – always closely allied with the neurophysiology faculty at Baylor College of Medicine led by Peter Kellaway, Ph.D.

Nina was instrumental in the founding of the American Society of Electroneurodiagnostic Technologists (ASET) in the early 1960s and served as its President from 1967 to 1969. She also helped establish and, throughout her career, examined for the American Board of Registration of Electroencephalographic and Evoked Potential Technologists (ABRET), an organization that afforded professional status to EEG technologists and standardized their practice as allied health practitioners. Nina received her own registration (R. EEG T.) in 1962 with the first group of those registered (she was number 4, with now over 4000 technologists certified).

In the pioneering days of the practice of EEG in Houston, Nina worked with the Baylor faculty to establish clinical laboratories, develop technological procedures, institute training programs, and participate in clinical research. She served as Supervisor, Department of Neurophysiology, The Methodist Hospital for close to 40 years overseeing the Department’s growth as both the field of EEG and the hospital grew. She performed EEGs on children from the Blue Bird Circle Clinic for Pediatric Neurology from its earliest years until its move from The Methodist Hospital. In the early 1960s she worked for three months at the University of Gotenberg, Sweden in an early exchange of technical and training information that fostered a long-standing collaboration between Baylor and the Swedish investigators.

Nina was kind and caring with patients, expert in technical aspects of EEG, and a devoted teacher of technologists and physicians in training. There have been generations of EEG technologists who were trained by Nina, many still practicing EEG and conducting their own training programs – and undoubtedly sharing her high standards and love of EEG. With colleagues and as sole author, she published clinical and scientific works – some relating to neonatal and pediatric EEG (early descriptions of techniques of recording) as well as EEG of adults.

Her dedication and early work set the stage for technical excellence in the field that others now follow. She was honored by many organizations for her contributions to the field of EEG and neurophysiology including: ASET, the Texas Electroencephalographic Society, The Methodist Hospital, and Baylor College of Medicine. Our faculty held a party to honor her and others in our Section just prior to her retirement in the 1990s. Nina was given a Waterford crystal cut in the shape of a large diamond – a symbol of the true treasure she had been to us all.

Eli M. Mizrahi, M.D.
Richard A. Hrachory, M.D.
James D. Frost, M.D.

Originally published in:

The Neurodiagnostic Journal, 47:4, 239–240.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1086508X.2007.11079639