Belgrade, March 02, 2010 – The Military Medical Academy is marking today 166 years of its tradition. Congratulations on the MMA’s Day to the members of our institution were sent by the President of the Republic of Serbia, Mr. Boris Tadić, Minister of Defense, Mr. Dragan Šutanovac, Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff, LtCol-Gen. Miloje Miletić, heads of national, educational, public and cultural institutions, units of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces of the Republic of Serbia, Retired Serbian Military Personnel Association as well as numerous users of the MMA’s services.

The MMA’s head Major General Prof. Dr. Miodrag Jevtić hosted a reception for former MMA’s heads. ‘’You were actively involved in building and safeguarding our Military Medical Academy; your endeavors serve as a valuable role model and a road sign to us; you are even today our precursors, dear teachers, sincere associates, valuable partners and councilors in all challenging situations we are facing on well paved paths we follow’, said General Jevtić in his welcoming address to the former MMA’s heads.

Within the framework for celebration of the MMA’s Day, the official session of the MMA’s Teaching-Scientific Council was held with the presence of the most responsible MMA’s representatives, the head of the MoD Department of Health, Brigadier General Assist. Prof. Dr. Veljko Todorović, head of the Military Academy Brigadier General Assist. Prof. Dr. Mladen Vuruna, City Secretary of Sports and Youth Affairs, Mr. Aco Kovačević, the rector of the Kragujevac University Prof. Dr. Slobodan Arsenijević, the dean of the Nis Medical School, Prof. Dr. Milan Višnjić, the head of the Nis Clinical Center, Prof. Dr. Srbobran Trenkić, the president of the Serbian Private Physicians Association Prof. Dr. Višeslav Hadži Tanović, notable representatives of public and cultural life, media and other distinguished guests.

The official session of the Taeching-Scientific Council was opened by the president of the Council, the MMA’s head, Major General Prof. Dr. Miodrag Jevtić, who, addressing the guests present to that occasion, said the following. ‘There are moments when we, led by our creative and working enthusiasm on our 166-year long way of continuous professional and scientific development, improvement and progress have to stop for while and look back to see how far we have come, and in what way we have to go on. The ancient wisdom says that the farthest is reached by those who know where they are heading! Today, we are adding one year more, 166th, in the book of existence of the Military Medical Academy. The most important events that marked the year behind us would be recorded on the pages of that book. I would like to share with you my satisfaction for we have succeeded in stabilizing this institution of national importance; revitalized its values; created a powerful corps of top experts and leaders in many fields of our profession; shown that tradition is an unavoidable obligation, the future is seen as an eternal challenge, and the work as a master of our present and inevitable pledge of our future! In that book, we have written that 2009 saw an increase in the number of rendered medical services by 10-20%. This year, we have examined over half a million people, hospitally treated about 35 000 patients and performed over 24 000 surgical and more than 3 000 000 diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Liver transplants, living donor and cadaveric kidney transplants have already become a part of our routine daily practice. Through our consistent support to the Nis Clinical center in mastering surgical techniques in kidney transplantation, we have shown that the Military Medical Academy is not present in 17, Crnotravska St. only, but its presence is felt in every part of our country. The length of hospital stay has been reduced, and our daily practice has been extended to include the services of the Same Day Surgery Center and out-patient hospital services. Finally, it has become clear that the military insured population is our target group, and that a soldier and an officer in uniform should not wait in front of the office’, said General Jevtić.
He stressed that, in between two MMA’s birthdays, several tents of new diagnostic and therapeutic methods were introduced into its routine clinical practice. ‘’We can be contented in particular with accomplishments in the fields of regenerative and molecular medicine, transplantation and endoscopic surgery, ophthalmology, blood transfusion, interventional neuroradiology,
pulmology, gastroenterology, etc.’, said General Jevtić and reiterated that the Treatment Service would be the epicenter of the MMA Management Board actions and activities. However, projected activities in the areas of education and scientific research would not be neglected.

‘’The Agreement with the National Public Health Institute has been strictly followed for two years already. Incorporation into the National Healthcare Safety Network has a historical dimension, and the fact that as of tomorrow, on Wednesdays, we will operate as an Emergency Center of the Serbian Health Service is of enormous strategic importance for our institution as well. Last year, we provided a reliable support in education and training of several hundreds of national and international healthcare professionals of all profiles. There were 6 candidates who defended their doctoral thesis, 42 doctors (of which 20 were from the National Defense System, 20 from the Civilian Sector and 2 international ones) who completed their residency programs, 182 healthcare workers (105 from the National Defense System, 63 from the Civilian Sector and 14 international ones) who underwent various forms of advanced training, 203 interns who completed a hospital internship programs and 125 students who underwent on-the-job medical training. We also sent a certain number of our physicians, medical technicians and engineers abroad for training purposes. Our participation in both the Balkan and World Military Medical Congresses held last year was remarkable, whilst our 117 ambassadors defended the results of our work before the top world professional authorities all across the world’, said General Jevtić.

He stressed that modern medicine cannot exist without medical technology of the latest generations. ‘In spite of all difficulties, we complemented our diagnostic and therapeutic services with 3T MRI machine, Angio Room, digital mammography machine, brand new ambulances, monitoring systems for IC units, and completely renovated and equipped gastroenterology and pulmonary functional diagnostic units, isn’t that enough? And there are activities planned to be further carried out in that context’, said the MMA’s head.

He expressed his content with the work of Sectors for Preventive Medicine and Logistics and Pharmacy Institute which took on a great burden of responsibilities and activities. ‘In fact, the greatest strength and value of the Military Medical Academy are considered to be the people. Top MMA’s Management is well aware of the fact that the strongest motivation to all the employees is the possibility of professional development. That makes them willing and ready to take on full responsibility, and I am convinced that there are many in our institution who thinks that the shortest and the most effective way of responding to existing problems is to do something. As for our business policy, the facts that the Military Medical Academy does not owe a single penny to anyone, and that its medical workforce has been strengthened by recruiting 105 experts (physicians, engineers, nurses) through an open competition speak in favor of that’, said General Jevtić and reminded that, last year, the ISO quality management system recertification audit and accreditation of 5 laboratories were successfully completed, the MMA was awarded the highest recognitions for providing medical support to the Universiade 2009, and the MMA’s surgical team, deployed to the UN-led mission in Chad, justified the expectations of the Serbian Defense System and the Military Medical Academy as well.

‘’Even though it’s not easy to single out the most significant result achieved in 2009, my choice would be the beginning of the First Year of the MMA’s School of Advanced Studies and enrolment of its first generation of medical students. It’s a historical event. The MMA will no longer be only a hospital or a hospital located on the outskirt of the town, but a hospital city, an academy dedicated to providing the state-of-the-art health care, teaching by the world standards, and achieving the top scientific results. We have also met all the standards of the National Council for Higher Education in Serbia without any problems, including accreditation of residency and PhD study programs. Very soon, we would have the first National Defense University, which would be concurrent to other universities in Serbia, and comprised of the MMA’s Medical School and SAF Military Academy. This University would offer education that should satisfy requirements and needs of the country’s Defense System and Armed Forces’ missions. With full responsibility, now and here, I can say that we have no intention of being a competitor to anyone; we are oriented to cooperation with everyone, for cooperation has always been a strong impetus to progress. We have defined so precisely and clearly our plans and objectives, so that the others can see them the way we do. More skillfully and knowledgeably than ever, we have strengthened our already strong foundations. We have integrated our profession, education and scientific work into a cohesive and harmonious whole. Finally, we have stretched all our sails and tightened the ropes. We all know that ‘’a ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are built for”. We have secured the safety of our future sailing by achieved results, fully aware that the only navigation device we can rely on would be knowledge-led continuous improvement. You see, knowledge refers to an individual; it is noiseless, but always action-oriented, directed towards making changes. Knowledge building and improvement process is not an abrupt leap, but a gradual, step-by-step progression. Initiative, consistency and above all confirmation of advantages of teamwork make us resolute in thinking that every chance for making any progress should be taken, even though we have learned from our exeperience that chances are often masked and opaque, and most often give the impression of hard work. However, we tend to beat our own records from day to day, for only such results we consider to be our successes. I would even be satisfied if, in 2010, we are all led in our work by the latin proverb "RES NON VERBA", concluded his speech General Jevtić.

In the course of the celebration ceremony, promotion of 6 doctoral and 42 specialist’s degree holders took place. They all defended their doctoral thesis and passed specialist final exams at the Military Medical Academy. Based on the results achieved throughout the previous year, Clinic for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care was proclaimed to be the best MMA’s organizational unit in 2009.The MMA’s head presented the head of the Clinic, Colonel, Prof. Dr. Predrag Romić with the MMA’s transitional and permanent plaque ‘’The best MMA’s organizational unit’’ The names of awarded and commended members of this institution who contributed the most to the achievement of those results, and affirmation of the Military Medical Academy at both national and international level, were read out.

The MMA’s members, who within the first rotation of the MoD and SAF mission were deployed to the UN-led peacekeeping mission in Chad, were awarded ‘’Dr. Vladan Đorđević“medals established in the honor of the first accomplished Serbian surgeon, and the first copies of the monograph titled ‘’Reports from Africa’’ which contains their summarized experiences and challenges they encountered during their deployment to Chad.
Indexing of the Military Medical Review into the bibliographic database of the most prestige scientific medical journals in the world is one of the important results achieved in 2009. In line with the tradition, the Author of the Year was also chosen this year. For the first time in history, the award laureate is a person outside the Military Medical Services, the dean of the Nis Medical School, Prof. Dr. Milan Višnjić.

Special MMA’s Letters of Thanks awarded annually for established successful partnership in the service of health and affirmation of universal values were presented to Prof. Dr. Slobodan Arsenijević, the rector of the Kragujevac University, then the Military Academy, Niš Klinical Center, Daily Newspaper Politika and a writer Milovan Vitezović.
 

Within the framework of marking 166 years of tradition, the MMA’s head, Major-General Prof. Dr. Miodrag Jevtić unveiled, in the MMA’s yard, the portrait bust of the Army Medical Corps officer, Colonel Mihajilo Mika Marković, one of the founder and reformer of the Military Medical Services, and former president of the Serbian Medical Society and Public Health Association. The bust is the work of the Academician Dr. Vladimir Jokanović. The representatives of the MMA’s Management laid the wreath at the memorial placed at the front entrance to the building of the Military Medical Academy.