The 500th Session of the MMA Teaching-Scientific Council
30. 10. 2008
Belgrade, October 30 - Under the auspice of the Minister of the Republic of Serbia Mr. Dragan Šutanovac, the official jubilant 500th session of the MMA Teaching-Scientific Council was held in the MMA amphitheater. Addressing distinguished guests, the head of the Military Medical Academy and the president of the Teaching-Scientific Council Major General Prof. Miodrag Jevtić, MD, PhD offered them a warm welcome to the Academy. Among the present, there were high representatives of the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces of the Republic of Serbia, deans, vice deans and professors of the Belgrade, Kragujevac, Niš, and Kosovska Mitrovica universities, former members of the MMA Teaching-Scientific Council, professors, fellow workers and heads of the MMA organizational units.
General Jevtić awarded a special plaque of the Military Medical Academy to the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Serbia Mr. Dragan Šutanovac. Expressing his special thanks and congratulating the Military Medical Academy its important jubilee, the Defence Minister said that MMA is the institution which managed to survive tough times, preserve its name, authority and reputation within our Defence System and in our comunity as well. ‘You have confirmed your results so many times in the fields of healthcare, education and scientific-research work thus representing not only the Serbian Defence System but the Serbian Health Service in general. Today, you are one of the Serbian best-known brands in both the country and the world. Your results may serve to us as a stimulus for further intensification of the reform processes and modernization of the Military Medical Academy and Military Medical Services as to make us the most sophistically organized and equipped system in the Balkans and the wider region. Almost everybody who comes to Serbia seeks medical services with the Military Medical Academy. That is assuredly a great acknowledgment but at the same time a great responsibility that should permanently be carried out in the context of international obligations and activities of our country’ said the Defence Minister.
General Jevtić also stressed the necessity of continuous medical education and training. ‘’Today, while I am standing here in front of you in the name of all the MMA present professors, assistant professors and assistants I’m feeling very proud that we’ve had such respectable teachers and that we’ve managed to preserve the values of learning and knowledge as a corner stone of the progress. I am also proud that our wealth is reflected in our ability to project our future by drawing the most precious values from our precursors. However, in the years behind us, it was not always so easy to do. There were tough moments we had to cope with. We were almost on the edge of our existence. But as people of continuity, we knew that there was only one way out, and that was to do what we knew the best. Not only to cure and care but to educate the others and accept the responsibility for our own professional development and education what was particularly important for medical profession’’ said General Jevtić. He also added ‘’we’ve realized that we can survive if we jealously keep and strengthen our enthusiasm associated with the idea of continuous improvements in the fields of our profession and medical science and foster our junior teaching and scientific corps expected to further keep continuity in the way it was kept before us and in the way we do it now.’’
A considerable part of General’s speech was devoted to the time that was ahead of the MMA and the path the MMA professors and researchers were to cover. ‘We know the way we are heading towards. The way we have chosen is the way we are supposed to enrich with new seeds of knowledge and with our efforts as well to teach the younger that knowledge is a treasure chest, and practical application of that knowledge is a key that opens it. Then. to make them realize that only those who correctly understand the science are able to better recognize their own limits, that people should not learn just to be knowledgeable but to gain certainty and that the secret of teaching lays in respecting those we teach. The way ahead of us is the way that actually comes out of our determination to safeguard and continue to enhance everything we have, to keep being modern, recognizable, actively involved in sharing with others our knowledge and experiences in the field of education with the aim of improving quality of teaching. Our intention is to offer as a guarantee of national and international cooperation our great personnel potentials for the purpose of scientific-research work. Such plans of ours are based on the fact that, over recent years, there has been a growing interest of a great number of educational and scientific institutions worldwide willing to cooperate with us’’.
The president of the MMA Teaching-Scientific Council finished his speech saying: ‘’ To come to the Military Medical Academy has again been considered a prestige. We are convinced that by strengthening regional and international cooperation we act in the interest of the Serbian science and the defence system which we are a part of and which we will always belong to. All our intentions are justified by thousands of those we have taught or trained, and by several hundreds of those who are still in some process of learning or dealing with science in our institution. Therefore, the way ahead of us is quite certain, in fact, it is the way we have already taken, the way we are going along armed with knowledge, full of energy and plans and important decisions. The MMA Management and all its members are well acquainted with clearly defined missions concerning our integration into the education and scientific-research system of the Republic of Serbia. It is a responsibility but also our decision we would decisively try to act upon in favor of all those that were here before us and those that would come after us. I want us to cover this way with a great optimism keeping always in mind a real value and immeasurable national dimension of our and your Military Medical Academy’’.
However, the precursor of the MMA Teaching-Scientific Council was the Council of Teachers established in 1953, which, in addition to education, dealt with teaching staff development and scientific research work related issues. Even then, Medical Services had their own education system, which, apart from education of active and reserve medical officers, offered numerous intensive courses intended for training of medical personnel of all profiles. The most responsible for those activities were professors from the Military Medical Academy. In 1959, the Council of Teachers developed into the Teaching-Scientific Council. In terms of its works, it followed, from the very beginning, methodology applied by Councils at civilian faculties. Today, Teaching and Scientific Corps of the Military Medical Academy comprises 127 assistant professors and professors reinforced with more than 50 junior assistants. The Council has 83 teachers.
General Jevtić also stressed the necessity of continuous medical education and training. ‘’Today, while I am standing here in front of you in the name of all the MMA present professors, assistant professors and assistants I’m feeling very proud that we’ve had such respectable teachers and that we’ve managed to preserve the values of learning and knowledge as a corner stone of the progress. I am also proud that our wealth is reflected in our ability to project our future by drawing the most precious values from our precursors. However, in the years behind us, it was not always so easy to do. There were tough moments we had to cope with. We were almost on the edge of our existence. But as people of continuity, we knew that there was only one way out, and that was to do what we knew the best. Not only to cure and care but to educate the others and accept the responsibility for our own professional development and education what was particularly important for medical profession’’ said General Jevtić. He also added ‘’we’ve realized that we can survive if we jealously keep and strengthen our enthusiasm associated with the idea of continuous improvements in the fields of our profession and medical science and foster our junior teaching and scientific corps expected to further keep continuity in the way it was kept before us and in the way we do it now.’’
A considerable part of General’s speech was devoted to the time that was ahead of the MMA and the path the MMA professors and researchers were to cover. ‘We know the way we are heading towards. The way we have chosen is the way we are supposed to enrich with new seeds of knowledge and with our efforts as well to teach the younger that knowledge is a treasure chest, and practical application of that knowledge is a key that opens it. Then. to make them realize that only those who correctly understand the science are able to better recognize their own limits, that people should not learn just to be knowledgeable but to gain certainty and that the secret of teaching lays in respecting those we teach. The way ahead of us is the way that actually comes out of our determination to safeguard and continue to enhance everything we have, to keep being modern, recognizable, actively involved in sharing with others our knowledge and experiences in the field of education with the aim of improving quality of teaching. Our intention is to offer as a guarantee of national and international cooperation our great personnel potentials for the purpose of scientific-research work. Such plans of ours are based on the fact that, over recent years, there has been a growing interest of a great number of educational and scientific institutions worldwide willing to cooperate with us’’.
The president of the MMA Teaching-Scientific Council finished his speech saying: ‘’ To come to the Military Medical Academy has again been considered a prestige. We are convinced that by strengthening regional and international cooperation we act in the interest of the Serbian science and the defence system which we are a part of and which we will always belong to. All our intentions are justified by thousands of those we have taught or trained, and by several hundreds of those who are still in some process of learning or dealing with science in our institution. Therefore, the way ahead of us is quite certain, in fact, it is the way we have already taken, the way we are going along armed with knowledge, full of energy and plans and important decisions. The MMA Management and all its members are well acquainted with clearly defined missions concerning our integration into the education and scientific-research system of the Republic of Serbia. It is a responsibility but also our decision we would decisively try to act upon in favor of all those that were here before us and those that would come after us. I want us to cover this way with a great optimism keeping always in mind a real value and immeasurable national dimension of our and your Military Medical Academy’’.
However, the precursor of the MMA Teaching-Scientific Council was the Council of Teachers established in 1953, which, in addition to education, dealt with teaching staff development and scientific research work related issues. Even then, Medical Services had their own education system, which, apart from education of active and reserve medical officers, offered numerous intensive courses intended for training of medical personnel of all profiles. The most responsible for those activities were professors from the Military Medical Academy. In 1959, the Council of Teachers developed into the Teaching-Scientific Council. In terms of its works, it followed, from the very beginning, methodology applied by Councils at civilian faculties. Today, Teaching and Scientific Corps of the Military Medical Academy comprises 127 assistant professors and professors reinforced with more than 50 junior assistants. The Council has 83 teachers.
