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Medical history of the city of Rijeka is a rich treasure trove of events, celebrities and valuable innovations in the field of healthcare. The historical development of Rijeka was largely determined by her geopolitical position as a border town with a multicultural population, marked by strong conflicts of interest and numerous identity turmoil. The great exodus of the domicile population of Italian nationality after World War II has significantly changed the social picture of the city. Among many of such esuli (immigrants) were brothers Giovanni (b. 1932) and Abdon (b. 1933) Pamich, whose lives are reminiscent of the fate of many displaced people from Rijeka who were forced to live in exile after the war. After leaving their hometown during the formative years of their childhood, they had successful careers in Italy in the fields of medicine and healthcare. The older brother Giovanni became a successful surgeon and the younger Abdon a psychologist. Along with his positions as the head of general surgery at the Monfalcone and Gorizia Hospitals, Giovanni Pamich was teaching at the University of Trieste. Abdon Pamich collaborated with the best Italian tennis players in the field of sports psychology, and was a psychologist for the Italian handball team. They both practiced athletics, and Abdon Pamich won the silver medal in speed walking at the 1958 European Championships in Sweden and the gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. In addition to emphasizing the achievements of the two brothers in the field of medicine, this paper also addresses the position of the migrant, which is highlighted in Robert Covaz’s book “Abdon Pamich, memorie di un marciatore (Rome, 2016), an exciting biography of an emigrant from Rijeka. The paper also explores the concept of thematizing the limits of differences and experiences of migration of Rijeka residents facing the existential issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Searching for an answer whether medicine is a science or an art, especially in today's time when the emphasis is on the biotechnological aspects of treatment, the intention of this paper is to reflect on the outcomes of the encounter of medicine and art. Those that are recognised at least in the complementarity of the methodology, creating additional life values. By presenting authentic actions, this is a call for additional health improvement interventions, without allowing the biopsychosocial approach to human integrity to be forgotten. The inspiration for this view was the prestigious title of the European Capital of Culture that the Town of Rijeka was awarded for the year 2020. This city is also a kind of capital of health culture in many ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary  Aim: to identify the influence of the 1991-1995 war on Croatian biomedical publications with reference to the Croatian universities and medical centers in Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek and their regions.  Methods: Internet provider PubMed was used to search MEDLINE database in the pre-war (1988-1990), war (1991-1995) and post-war (1996-2000) periods. Annual numbers of publications in the MEDLINE and Core Clinical Journals (Abridged Index Medicus; AIM-journals) were calculated for each center in the above mentioned periods. Our analysis included socio-economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP) and total employment, human resources such as the number of full-time researchers, teachers and researchers in biomedical sciences, university graduates, master and doctoral thesis. Descriptive statistics and t-test were used.  Results: In the 1988-2000 period the proportion of Croatian publications in the MEDLINE database was 0.076%. The proportion of AIM-publication in the MEDLINE was 11.5%, while the proportion of Croatian AIM-publications in Croatian publications in the MEDLINE was only 0.02%. Compared to the pre-war period, Croatia increased the number of publications in the MEDLINE in the war period (p<0.05) and post-war period (p<0.01). In the war period GDP and other socio-economic indicators decreased in contrast to an increase in biomedical publications. All centers increased the number of MEDLINE publications significantly in the war and post-war periods (p<0.01), while the growth of AIM-publications in Zagreb and Split was not significant. The proportion of biomedical publications in Zagreb decreased in the war and post-war periods while it was almost doubled in the other centers. Croatia increased its biomedical publication rates (per 100,000 inhabitants per year) from 3.8 (the pre-war period) to 6.6 (the war period) and 9.0 (the post-war period). In those periods biomedical publication rates were also increased in all centers with belonging regions, in spite of the war. A small number of teachers and researchers in biomedical sciences in Split and Osijek produced more publications per person in the war period than a larger number of their colleagues in other two centers.  Conclusion: Croatia and its centers, Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek increased biomedical publication rates despite enormous destruction and human losses caused by the war. Despite a significant increase in the quantity of Croatian publications in the MEDLINE database, the number of AIM-publications increased only slightly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]