21.10.2013.
Course on War Surgery at MMA
The Military Medical Academy today began a four-day course on war surgery, the first of its kind, designed for Austrian medical officers in advancement studies.Opening the seminar, the Head of the Military Health Department, Professor Brigadier General Zoran Popovic, expressed his satisfaction with the successful cooperation with Austria in this area, adding that the experience brought by the Austrian colleagues dealing with military health in international organizations is of great benefit.
The Head of the Military Medical Academy, Brigadier General Marijan Novakovic pointed out that military surgery is one of the brands of that institution because we happened to have experience and strive to use them for the purpose of successful treatment and scientific practice. He added that the experience of the Austrian colleagues and their everyday practice would be very important for us.
The leader of the Austrian delegation, Colonel Michael Protivinsky recalled that the group of doctors from Austria he leads has extensive experience in peacekeeping missions but that they are "deeply aware" of the experience of MMA doctors in this field.- This is primarily because of the unfortunate events of the recent past, but also the experience in peacekeeping missions, particularly in Chad, so this is an opportunity for us in this course to find out more about the experiences of the Serbian colleagues, in order to improve our skills and abilities on the basis of this new knowledge.
Professor Colonel Predrag Romic, a professional responsible person for this course, expressed his satisfaction that seven Austrian doctors, orthopaedic surgeons, specialists in emergency medicine, their surgical team, are in visit to the MMA, at the seminar during which they are to exchange experiences and attend a joint exercise organized by the Serbian Armed Forces Medical Services.
- In the exercise, our doctors will demonstrate how they apply what they know in a situation of, this time the earthquake. We have been chosen as a partner in this kind of a project, because we are a service with great tradition and experience in war surgery, acquired, unfortunately, over the past decades. This experience has been recognized in the European and the world medicine, and this is the reason for the interest of many delegations – Romic says pointing out that we do not have the technical capabilities as the developed countries, helicopter and other systems, but we have the knowledge and experience acquired in the most difficult situations.