Croatian medical journal
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Croatian medical journal · Aug 2004
International pediatric cardiac assistance in Croatia: results of the 10 year program.
In an effort to help alleviate the lack of an adequate pediatric cardiac surgical service that existed in Croatia following 1991 the International Childrens Heart Foundation (ICHF) was asked to provide the necessary surgery. Initially, this project was undertaken as a humanitarian program to provide pediatric cardiac operations. After 5 years, the Republic of Croatia financially sponsored the program. The intended purpose of the Government Sponsored Program was to provide staff education, clinical services, and the development of an organized pediatric cardiac service team in country. The surgical results of the humanitarian program and the educational and surgical results of the Government sponsored program are reported. ⋯ The combination of humanitarian and government sponsored pediatric cardiac surgical missions provided 601 Croatian children with operations. Substantial progress was made in the areas of anesthesia, perfusion, and postoperative care in the cardiac surgical intensive care unit. Despite these improvements a number of issues still exist that prevent the development of an independently functioning full service pediatric cardiac program.
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Academic medicine seems under pressure. The revolutionary changes in the practice of medicine of the last decades, the continuing demands for educational reform, decreased appreciation of the medical profession, budgetary constraints, and a variety of medical ethical issues have shaken up academic medicine and interest in an academic career seems to be waning. ⋯ The present situation can also be perceived as a challenge, which offers new opportunities. Better appreciation of educational efforts, more emphasis on the intellectual rather than the technological challenges of modern medicine, reconsideration of the strong tendency for super-specialization, recognition of originality and dedication over academic hierarchy and rethinking of strategies for development of patient-oriented research are briefly discussed.
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Croatian medical journal · Aug 2004
ReviewTemptation of academic medicine: second alma mater and "shared employment' concepts as possible way out?
Apparently, in developing and in well-developed societies we are confronted with a crisis of academic medicine in all aspects: health care, teaching, and research. Health care providers in teaching hospitals are under pressure to generate revenues, academic research is pressed to keep pace with institutions devoted solely to research, and teaching is often understood not as privilege and honor but as burden and nuisance. ⋯ Most academic exchange programs developed so far have proved to be ineffective and of poor vitality, in spite of loud exclamations, high expectations, and a huge amount of good will involved. In contrast, the suggested cooperation will be based exclusively on mutual interest and clearly defined benefits for all involved parties.
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Croatian medical journal · Aug 2004
Historical ArticleCraniometric relationships among medieval Central European populations: implications for Croat migration and expansion.
To determine the ethnic composition of the early medieval Croats, the location from which they migrated to the east coast of the Adriatic, and to separate early medieval Croats from Bijelo brdo culture members, using principal components analysis and discriminant function analysis of craniometric data from Central and South-East European medieval archaeological sites. ⋯ Early medieval Croats seem to be of Slavic ancestry, and at one time shared a common homeland with medieval Poles. Application of unstandardized discriminant function coefficients to unclassified crania from 18 sites showed an expansion of early medieval Croats into continental Croatia during the 10th to 13th century.
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Croatian medical journal · Aug 2004
Free the dinosaurs into butterfly gardens: in a search for changing the profile of the academic professional.
In the present debate about academic medicine in crisis, I argue that the problem is partly the consequence of a global process of alienation and depersonalization. Technology-based medicine is one of the key players which creates unsuitable role models. ⋯ Academic professionals should influence more strongly not only the quality of health care but the whole mentality in our socialized world. Academia itself should also become an arena for advanced ideas, and creative power pervaded by the humanities -- a facet which has been lost.