• Vladimir Stancić, Nevenka Stancić, Vesna Vucelić, Nada Lang, and Ljiljana Grbac.
• Division of Hematology, University Department of Medicine, Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital Center, Zagreb, Croatia. vladimir.stancic@zg.htnet.hr
• Acta Clin Croat. 2011 Sep 1; 50 (3): 385-94.

AbstractThe Coagulation Section at Laboratory of Hematology, Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital, Zagreb, was founded in 1955 by Ljubomir Popović, hematologist and assistant at School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, in cooperation with hard-working laboratory technicians. Apart from papers on hematologic neoplasms, plasmacytoma and lymphoma, Ljubomir Popović published a number of papers in the field of anticoagulant therapy with heparin and oral anticoagulants, some of which are also in use today. After Ljubomir Popović left the Hospital in 1964, the Laboratory was run by Professor Nedjeljko Milić, head of the newly founded Division of Hematology. In 1968, the management of the Laboratory of Hematology was taken over by Biserka Raić, MS, medical biochemist, until her retirement in 2007. Great development in morphological and cytometric studies of blood and blood cells has been paralleled by continuous progress and almost dominating activities in the diagnosis of hemostasis disorders. In the 1970s, Marko Koprcina, hematologist, and Biserka Raić introduced the then latest tests in practice at all Hospital departments. In that golden age of the Coagulation Section, M. Koprcina, B. Raić and their associates transferred their knowledge to all colleagues in the Hospital. Through that collaboration, high standards in the diagnosis of hemostasis disorders were achieved, from which the currently high level of clinical knowledge about coagulation disorders and their treatment has derived, making Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital one of the leading hospitals in this field in the country. By describing development of the Coagulation Section and the life of its founder Ljubomir Popović, the authors tried to provide an answer to the following question: can today's clinicians still have a deciding role in laboratory development, considering that assessments of different phenomena are always initiated by an interested clinician who is trying to interpret and understand the nature of the disorder? This means that the clinician's place may still be in the laboratory, or else, it will become clear that the laboratory, as well as knowledge in general, has undergone such an expansion that the clinician is no longer able to run it by himself. It is our belief that the answer will assert itself through the survey of the history of the Coagulation Section at Laboratory of Hematology, Division of Hematology, and the lives of its founders and beneficiaries.

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