Category: Events

Dear all, ladies and gentlemen,

The Museum of the History of Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw extends a warm invitation to the opening of the exhibition titled: “VITA BREVIS ARS LONGA…” The event will take place on 12th December (Monday) at 10 a.m. in the Library and Information Centre, specifically in the Temporary Exhibitions Gallery on the first floor.

This exhibition focuses on the pinnacle of ancient Greek medicine. At its heart lies Hippocrates and his enduring legacy, alongside the ancient gods of Greek medicine. The exhibition’s title, “VITA BREVIS ARS LONGA…,” is the Latin rendition of Hippocrates’ maxim, which translates to “Life is short, art is long…” This saying emphasises that a single lifetime is insufficient to master the art of medicine, requiring the collective efforts of many generations.

We look forward to your presence at the opening of this exhibition, where you can delve into the rich world of ancient Greek medicine.

The Museum of the History of Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw cordially invites you to an exhibition of paintings by Wanda Piskorska titled “Picture of Days.

Wanda Piskorska, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, skilfully explores the challenging theme of the traumatic experience of a pandemic in her presented artworks. The series “Picture of Days” was created as part of the Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. The exhibition is curated by Monika Klimowska.

You can visit the exhibition from 19th October 2022 to 9th January 2023 at the Museum, located at 63 Żwirki i Wigury Street, 02-091 Warsaw. The exhibition is open from 9:00 to 16:00, and admission is free.

Dear Sirs and Madams, we are pleased to inform you that the 200th anniversary celebration of the uninterrupted activity of the Warsaw Medical Association will be held on the 6th December at 13.00 at the WUM Didactic Centre.

The Warsaw Medical Association begins its celebrations with an exhibition of portraits of Warsaw doctors – members and friends of the Warsaw Medical Association – contemporary representatives of our great academic community. The creator of the portraits on display is the painter, artist Tytus Byczkowski, and the exhibition is co-organised by our Museum.

Established on 6^th of December 1820 at the initiative of a group of professors from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Warsaw, the Warsaw Medical Association pursued its chief motto – “To Serve the People and the Homeland” – throughout the next 200 most difficult years of Poland’s history, preserving and developing the most beautiful traditions and best models of medical behaviour.

We are delighted and proud to announce that our University Museum has received a Recognition Award in the 14th edition of annual competition “The Willow – Mazovian Museum Events” in the category “The most interesting exhibition – organized by major museums”  for organizing the exhibition titled “Femina et Medicina. A portrait of Hygiea in the academic tradition of Warsaw”. We found ourselves  in exclusive company of other recognized top tier Warsaw cultural institutions, including The Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the National Museum in Warsaw. The award ceremony will be held on 14th September at the Radom Open Air Museum in the city of Radom. We are pleased  that our hard work has been appreciated, it will increase  motivation to redouble and improve our efforts in the future.

Link to the exhibition publication: Femina et Medicina. Portret Hygiei w tradycji akademickiej Warszawy

The Museum of the History of Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw (WUM) warmly invites you to the opening of the exhibition 1920–2020. One hundred years of teaching internal medicine. Mściwój Semerau-Siemianowski – the father of modern cardiology, which will take place on 13 January at 1 pm, at the WUM Educational Centre, first floor, at 2a Trojdena Street.

The exhibition is under the honorary patronage of Rector Prof. Mirosław Wielgoś.

Over 100 years ago, at the beginning of the 1918/1919 academic year, Dr Mściwój Semerau-Siemanowski begins working as assistant professor under Professor Kazimierz Rzętkowski (1870–1924) at the Second Clinic of Internal Medicine of the University of Warsaw which had been established in The Holy Spirit Hospital (Pol: Szpital św. Ducha) on Elektoralna Street. At this clinic, Mściwój Semerau-Siemianowski develops utilitarian methods for carrying out cardiac and cardiovascular examinations, and adds the relatively recently discovered (i.e. only a dozen or so years earlier) electrocardiographic (ECG) examination to the routine tests undergone by patients. From 1920, for the first time in the history of the university, he gives lectures on physical examinations of internal medicine patients, although not yet officially a university teacher. So, symbolically, it could be said that we are celebrating the centenary of modern teaching of internal medicine and the diagnostic testing of research into the circulatory system at our Alma Mater.

Thirty years later cardiology becomes a separate discipline from internal medicine. However, already in the 1920s and 1930s,  after the death of his superior, Dr. Mściwój Semerau-Siemianowski lays the foundations of cardiology very firmly.

In 1922, he publishes a dissertation: On the activities of intrinsically beating chambers of the human heart: a pharmacological and physio-pathological study, which became the basis of his post-doctoral thesis (habilitation). Shortly afterwards, the young university teacher begins giving his own lectures on the diagnostics and therapy of cardiovascular diseases. As of the 1924/25 academic year, he establishes and takes over the management of the Department of Internal Diseases in the new St Lazarus Hospital on Książęca Street – the first department in Poland to specialize in cardiovascular diseases, with separate analytical, radiological, electrocardiographic, haematological and resting metabolism laboratories. There was also a room set up at the centre for experimental testing on animals. The laboratories were partially equipped at his own expense.

In 1935 he withdraws from some of the didactic lectures in internal medicine, devoting himself exclusively to cardiological issues – in the years 1936–38 he runs the first two-week postgraduate training course in Poland for cardiologists. However, the establishment of independent structures of Polish cardiology is interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Professor Mściwój Semerau-Siemianowski revists the idea immediately after the war, after returning to Warsaw in 1949.

In 2020, exactly 70 years will have passed since 15 January 1950 when the Cardiology Department of the Society of Polish Internal Medicine Practitioners (Towarzystwa Internistów Polskich – TIP) – the leading centre of internal medicine in Warsaw – was established under Professor Mściwój Semerau-Siemanowski at the Second Clinic of Internal Medicine of the University of Warsaw. In addition to the chairman, the Department included three students and associates of the Master: Jerzy Jakubowski (Vice-President), Dmitri Aleksandrov (Secretary) and Edward Żera (Treasurer). Therefore seventy years ago the formal process of setting cardiology apart from internal medicine began, and four years later the newly-established Society of Polish Internal Medicine Practitioners (TIP) became the Polish Society of Cardiology (PTK). This was officially confirmed on 28 February 1954. We shall be reminding you about all of this at the exhibition marking the centenary and 70th anniversary being held within the walls of the Medical University of Warsaw.

Prof. Krzysztof J. Filipiak