A hundred years of the constitution of Institute of Forensic Medicine of Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University in Bratislava

Overview

The Institute of Forensic Medicine was established at the same time as the newly established Comenius University in 1919 and was one of the first five institutes of the Faculty of Medicine. The forensic medicine became not only a subject of medical education but also fulfilled a health care function, i. e. the performance of forensic and the then so-called medical-police autopsies, as well as forensic expertise for judicial authorities. Combining the teaching of the subject of forensic medicine with the practical performance of medical and expert activities formed the basis for beginning of the modern history and further development of forensic medicine in the Slovak republic. The staff of the Institute laid the foundations of pedagogy and forensic practice, which were further spread to the whole territory of the Slovak Republic. They co-participated in the establishment of other university institutes of forensic medicine in Košice and Martin, and also in the building of the network of departments of forensic medicine in hospitals within the framework of health care, in the development of the conception of the field and in the creation of study literature. The staff of the Institute devoted to research dedicated to the issue of atherosclerosis, sudden deaths, mechanical asphyxia, suicide rate, traffic accidents, the influence of ethanol, drugs and other xenobiotics and forensic traumatology. They established a tradition of scientific conferences of forensic medicine and were instrumental in acquiring credit of the Slovak forensic medicine at international level.

Keywords:

forensic medicine – institute – history – Education – research – Autopsy