Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Poland

Viewed from a historical perspective, a period of 53 years, when compared with the multicentennial tradition of other universities, is short indeed. When one considers that Szczecin was never a seat of schools of higher learning and the establishment of the university took place just after an exceptionally devastating war with local physicians, scientists and teachers missing altogether, one must admit that 50 years of active existence of the university is an outstanding achievement.

The first organizers of the Pomeranian Medical University were Prof. Jakub Wegierko (first rector) and professors: Tadeusz Chorazak, Artur Chwalibogowski, Tadeusz Markiewicz, Czeslaw Murczynski, Tadeusz Sokolowski, Witold Starkiewicz, Kazimierz Stojalowski, Jozef Taniewski and January Zubrzycki. Soon to join them were professors: Izabela Cwojdzinska-Gadzikiewicz, Lech Dzialoszynski, Adam Krechowiecki, Wanda Murczynska, Jan Slotwinski, Eugeniusz Mietkiewski, Edward Gorzkowski, Irena Semadeni, Boleslaw Gornicki.

Owing to the significant number of professors settling in Szczecin, the Pomeranian Medical University became the sole school of higher learning in this town bestowed with full academic powers to hold doctoral and habilitated doctor studies and grant doctoral degrees.

The passion and efforts of the pioneers resulted in an increasing number of students and academic teachers, a widening scope and rising level of specialized health services, and in scientific research of growing importance.

In spite of financial and technical difficulties new lecture halls, student hostels and other buildings of social use were erected. These include two new lecture halls in the First and Second State Clinical Hospitals, three new hostels, the Main Library, one sports hall, three vacations centres, etc. Modern buildings for the Department of Clinical Biochemistry and for the Department of Psychiatry were erected.

At present the university has more than 1,370 beds in both State Clinical Hospitals and almost 400 beds in other hospitals in Szczecin. Altogether, there are approximately 1,780 beds in the clinical departments and the number of patients treated yearly exceeds 32,000.

Clinical departments of the University, besides offering sophisticated health care services for the Western Pomerania region, provide basic medical care because Szczecin does not possess a municipal hospital. Furthermore, the outpatient departments are an important element of the treatment and services base of the region, acting chiefly as specialized consultancy centres with a yearly number of visits exceeding 160,000.

Between 1994 and 2009 of young academic teachers in PMU procure prestigious scholarships of Polish Science Foundation. Presently the University has 1478 students, including 1012 students of medicine and 466 of dentistry.

The Pomeranian Medical University has more than 500 faculty and almost 200 technical staff. Among the academic staff are 43 professors and 54 habilitated doctors. Since 1948 8060 physicians and 3314 dentists graduated from the University. 1113 researchers obtained the degree of doctor and 196 of habilitated doctor. Actually University employ 33 professors and 36 extraoridinary professors. Important centres for information and documentation, indispensable for research activities, are the Main Library and the Publishing Division of PMU.

The Main Library continues to grow since 1949, albeit with varying pace over the years. It has two sections in the Clinical Hospitals, stores more than 260,000 books and offers 584 periodicals. Scientific, experimental, clinical, historical and bibliographic papers appear in the Annals of the university since 1950.