Forum: Gdansk Medical School Forum Location: Poland Year Founded: 1945 Time required for MD: 6 Years Tuition: $12,000 Yr 1, $8,000 Yrs 2-6 (per annum) Student Loans: Stafford Loans and others Email: Email Gdansk Medical School Survey: Gdansk Medical School Review

A Brief History of Poland by The World Factbook 2006

Poland is an ancient nation that was conceived near the middle of the 10th century. Its golden age occurred in the 16th century. During the following century, the strengthening of the gentry and internal disorders weakened the nation. In a series of agreements between 1772 and 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria partitioned Poland amongst themselves. Poland regained its independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union in World War II. It became a Soviet satellite state following the war, but its government was comparatively tolerant and progressive. Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" that over time became a political force and by 1990 had swept parliamentary elections and the presidency. Read More

I would like to extend a warm welcome to all candidates who have decided to start their studies at the Medical University of Gdańsk. Our University offers students the best possible conditions for an effective course of independent studies. The different forms of tuition consist of open laboratories, seminars conducted by our highly experienced tutors, lectures given by our professors as well as individual and team assignments executed by students. For under- and post-graduate students interested in broadening and deepening their knowledge our departments offer the possibility of research work. Available to all students are also medical literature and multimedia medical software.

The structure of our university includes three faculties: the Faculty of Medicine with Divisions of Dentistry and Nursing, the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology University of Gdańsk/Medical University of Gdańsk. Until now we have awarded 11963 diplomas of M.D., 4017 diplomas of dentistry, 4194 masters of science in the field of pharmacy and 105 masters of science in the field of biotechnology. Our University offers also various forms of postgraduate education and up to now the Faculty Council has conferred more than 1000 Ph.D. degrees.

Since the year 2000, in accordance with the Senate's decision, a four- and six-year teaching programme in English has been established for international candidates. The four-year programme is dedicated to students from the United States and Canada who successfully finished their pre-medical education in biology, chemistry and physics in a Medical College. The six-year programme is designed for students from the European Union and other countries. During their education at our university the scope of students' knowledge will be tested in the form of a state examination according to USA, Canada or European Union standards. After graduating from the Medical Faculty the students will receive a diploma of physician (M.D.), certifying graduation in medicine from the Medical University of Gdańsk, and can apply for a license to practice medicine in their home country.

The Medical University of Gdańsk was founded in 1945 and since then has been enjoying the status of an academic state school. It is now one of the largest medical universities on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea and is one of the most modern institutions of this kind in Poland. The University continues a several-centuries-long tradition of the natural and medical sciences of Gdańsk Gymnasium (Gymnasium Gedanense, set up in 1558, and later renamed as Academic Gymnasium, Gymnasium Academicum sive Illustre, Atheneum Gedanense).

The Gdańsk Academic Gymnasium had a Chair of Medicine and Anatomy headed by distinguished doctors, the most famous of whom was Joachim Oelfahius, a native citizen of Gdańsk, acclaimed for, among other things, the first public post mortem examination in Poland and nothern Europe in 1613. The list of celebrities of the Gymnasium also includes Jan Adam Kulmus, an equally renowned anatomy professor, who in 1732 edited a big anatomical atlas in Gdańsk, later to be reedited and translated into several languages.

The tradition of pharmaceutical sciences in Gdańsk goes back to Jan Placotomus, author of an excellent textbook and head of the first pharmacy founded in Gdańsk in 1527, and to Jan Schmiedt alias Fabritius, co-author of the oldest Polish pharmacopeia published in 1665. The Gdańsk Academic Gymnasium boasted a high level of teaching and its graduates were accepted as third-year students at Western European universities.

Between the years of 1935 and 1939, the School of Practical Medicine (Die Staatliche Akademie für Praktische Medicin) functioned in Gdańsk and was turned into Medical Academy (Medizinische Akademie) during the World War II (1939-1945).

In 1945, following the end of World War II the Medical University (Akademia Lekarska) was set up by Polish authorities to be renamed in 1950 as the Medical University of Gdańsk (Akademia Medyczna w Gdańsku). Among the senior teaching staff of the new University were many distinguished Polish scientists once active at the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius, who came to Gdańsk after the annexation of Vilnius by the Soviet Union.

Since the very moment of its foundation, the Medical University of Gdańsk has been going through years of constant and dynamic development, with many new departments and clinics coming into life. The University`s medical equipment has been modernised and some new buildings have been built, including the library, the building that houses the Departments of Basic Sciences, and the student campus.

Once a branch of the Medical University of Gdańsk, the Medical University of Bydgoszcz gained independent status in 1984. In Bydgoszcz, the majority of medical staff were either graduates from our Medical University of Gdańsk or its former university staff members. In close cooperation with the University of Gdańsk, the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology was set up in 1993 and a full-time undergraduate course in biotechnology leading to Master's degree has been established.

The Medical University of Gdańsk has 3417 students in three Faculties: The Faculty of Medicine ( Div. Of Dentristry, Div. of Nursing, Div. of Public Health, English Division), the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology and the Faculty of Pharmacy ( Div. of Labolarory Medicine), PhD students. The length of studies at the Medical University of Gdańsk varies from six years for students of medicine and five years for those of biotechnology or pharmacy.

The basic teaching at the Medical University of Gdańsk is carried out by 847 academic teachers, over 120 of them being professors. The University campuses and its own academic facilities are located in the region of Dębinki Street (Faculty of Medicine), and in Hallera Street (Faculty of Pharmacy). Additionally, there are three State Teaching Hospitals affiliated to the School.

Among our University buildings, the one erected in 1975 and housing the Basic Sciences Departments (Collegium Biomedicum) is noteworthy for its three lecture halls and twelve organizational units, that are well-equipped with modern instruments for teaching and research.

The biggest Teaching Hospital (No 1) of the Medical University of Gdańsk (Academic Clinical Centre) is situated in several buildings in the region of Dębinki Street and Smoluchowskiego Street. Built between 1908 and 1927, the buildings originally housed a town hospital, and later the aforementioned School of Practical Medicine. Today, Teaching Hospital No 1 has 27 clinics.

The hospital buildings are being systematically modernised and the Departments are furnished with modern diagnostic and therapeutic equipment. The construction and equipment of the brand new building housing the Institute of Radiology and Radiotherapy has been completed. The Institute has at its disposal a magnetic resonance imaging instrument as well as the new generation of equipment for radiotherapy, computed tomography and ultrasonography. In recent years the Institute of Cardiology has been organised and 3 new modern operation theaters for cardiosurgery have been built. Buildings have been expanded and modernised to meet the increased needs of haematology, anaesthesiology, intensive care and of the central admissions ward.

State Teaching Hospital No 2 is located in the buildings of the former hospital of maternity and women's diseases which was founded in 1912. Today, Hospital No 2 includes the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and has 400 hospital beds.

Some of the University clinics are located in district hospitals in Gdańsk: the Regional Hospital (Copernicus Hospital), the Hospital of Infectious Diseases, and the Psychiatric and Neurological Health Care Centre in Gdańsk.

Today, the Medical University of Gdańsk encompasses 32 clinics, each clinic not only being involved in teaching activities for undergraduate and graduate students, specialistic professional training of young physicians, but also providing highly specialised diagnostic and therapeutic services for the citizens of Gdańsk and neighbouring towns. In fact, the whole population of the country's central northern region benefits from our University's services, which include, for example, open heart surgery (over 1000 operations per year) and bone marrow and kidney transplantation.

The Medical University of Gdańsk conducts scientific research in clinical disciplines and biomedical sciences, concentrating in particular on the following:

• experimental & clinical nephrology and theoretical & practical problems connected with transplantation,
• cytogenetics of neoplasms, immuno-oncology & oncohematology,
• hypertension & experimental and clinical diabetology; nutrition,
• liver pathophysiology,
• surgical and endoscopic treatment of digestive tract diseases,
• experimental & clinical studies of pancreas inflamation,
• endocrine surgery
• diagnostics of circulatory system diseases, and surgical treatment of cardiovascular disorders,
• neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, neurosurgery and physiopathology of the central nervous system,
• radiology & diagnostic imaging (using MRI, CT and USG),
• cell & molecular biology, molecular diagnostics,
• environment and human body hygiene,
• chromatography in modelling drug actions,
• improvement of the form of drugs, and synthesis of new drugs,
• metabolism and its regulation.

An important role in the research and teaching activities of the University is played by the Main Library, whose set of books amounts to 551,500 volumes, and the number of titles of domestic and foreign journals totals 660. The Library provides a computerised, scientific medical information from several world data bases. In recent years the University has gained a broad access to the INTERNET and the number of active terminals amounts now to 1500.

Didactic, scientific, and patient-oriented therapeutic activities of the Medical University of Gdańsk are developed in cooperation with numerous well-known foreign universities and hospitals.