Igor Laufer, gastrointestinal radiologist

Igor Laufer, 66, of Bala Cynwyd, a gastrointestinal radiologist, died of complications from cancer on Tuesday, Sept. 14, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

From 1976 to 1997, Dr. Laufer was chief of the gastrointestinal radiology department there.

He was residency training program director for the radiology department from 1993 to 2000 and its residency selection director from 1999 to 2004.

Marc S. Levine, current chief of gastroenterology radiology at HUP, wrote in an e-mail that Dr. Laufer's work "had a major impact on patient care, leading to earlier detection and treatment of everything from herpes esophagitis and inflammatory bowel disease to benign and malignant GI [tumors]."

Specifically, Levine noted that Dr. Laufer "pioneered the techniques for performing double contrast GI esophagograms, double contrast upper GI examinations and double contrast barium enemas."

Levine explained that double contrast "is a technique for obtaining more detailed information about the mucosal surface of the GI tract."

He said Dr. Laufer's "work was embodied in the first edition of his classic test, Double Contrast Gastrointestinal Radiology with Endoscopic Correlation, published by W.B. Saunders in 1979."

"Igor's work generated so much excitement that it ignited a worldwide resurgence in barium studies and a new era of double contrast GI radiology. . . .

"This text is still considered essential reading for resident training in GI fluoroscopy and barium studies."

He was, Levine said, "a masterful teacher."

"He lectured all over the country and world, serving as an invited lecturer or visiting professor more than 400 times, including 16 named honorary lectures. As a speaker, he had an uncanny ability to distill even the most complex subjects down to their bare essence."

Dr. Laufer was president in 1984-86 of the Society of Gastrointestinal Radiologists, a national organization that, in 1988, awarded him its Walter B. Cannon Medal.

In 2005, the Philadelphia Roentgen Ray Society gave him its Outstanding Educator Award.

Born in what is now Slovakia, he earned his medical degree at the University of Toronto in 1967 and from 1972 to 1976 was a gastrointestinal radiologist at McMaster University Medical Center in Hamilton, Ontario.

Dr. Laufer is survived by his wife, Bernice; a son, Jacob; a daughter, Miriam; and a grandson.

Funeral services took place Wednesday, Sept. 15.