Obituary

Academician Grujica Žarković (1915-2010) Slobodan Loga Husref Tahirović

improved the position of that highly numerous part of the population at that time. The roots of his future orientation towards social aspects of medicine and left-wing political options should most probably be sought in his early cognitions of human inequality and injustice. After graduation from the School of Medici- nein Zagreb, he applied for the job of teaching assistant at the Department of Physiology of this School of Medicine, but the war did not al- low him to learn the job application results, or engage in neuroscientific research. At the begin- ning of World War II his family was deported to Academician Grujica Žarković was the corre- a concentration camp, and afterwards expelled, sponding member of ANUBiH from 1967, and whereas doctor G. Žarković, after a short en- he received the status of academician in 1972, gagement at a hospital in Nova Gradiška, joined thus being, for a long time, a doyen-academician partisans at Psunj in Slavonia. with the longest service in the current composi- Since 1941, during the National Liberation tion of the Academy. With his human, intellectual, War, he served as Head of the Medical Corps of scientific, pedagogical, research and other quali- the Croatian Third Operative Zone, Head of the ties, as well as with his world view, academician Medical Department in the headquarters of the Žarković was a unique personality in our region. Sixth Corps of the National Liberation Army and It is difficult to scrutinize comprehensively his the Resistance Movement, Head of the Medi- forty-three years of work in the Department of cal Corps of the principal headquarters of the Medical Sciences of the Academy of Sciences and National Liberation Army and the Resistance Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ANUBiH), since Movement in Croatia, member of the National each year of that work brings a long list of activi- Anti-Fascist Council of the People’s Liberation ties in which academician Žarković participated. of Croatia (ZAVNOH), and assistant Minister of Academician Žarković was born on the 12th Health on the National Committee of the Libera- of April 1915 in Bogotin (Glina municipality). tion of Yugoslavia. He grew up and received education in the Croa- After the war he played a number of respon- tian part of the former Military Frontier (Vojna sible roles in the health care system, among oth- Krajina). During his childhood, living in the ru- ers he was an assistant minister in the Ministry ral environment, he truly sympathized with the of Health of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav consul in severe life of peasants, and it encouraged him to Australia, assistant Minister of Health of the Re- search for solutions to their toilsome lives, and public of Croatia and chief medical inspector in to advocate social changes which could have the Ministry of Health of Yugoslavia.

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Many reforms, which academician Žarković form in the SFRY” at the same time. His proposal recommended at that time, were accepted and was rejected for debate in the Assembly on a pro- have remained embedded till today within the cedural basis. health systems of the successor states of the for- During the next twenty years he had the mer Yugoslavia, but not all, especially not the impression that he was under a special regime, one, for which he was interested in the most: the because he was consistently moved away from right of citizens for equal health care. When they the politics of the health service organization in asked him if that idea was Utopia or reality, even our region. However, besides this, he was hon- in his 95th year of life, he was self-consistent and oured in expert and public circles. He was elected thought of it as the only way for the achievement as president of the University of Sarajevo Asso- of the community welfare. ciation of Teachers, president of the Bosnia and In 1951 he was elected assistant professor Herzegovina Association of Medical Doctors, for Hygiene at the School of Medicine in Sara- and president of the Union of Yugoslav Associa- jevo. Afterwards he left for postgraduate studies tions of Doctors. As a WHO consultant he visited at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston India and Ceylon, participated at the congresses where he gained his Master’s degree in meth- of medical doctors, led a couple of great research odology of epistemological research. After ob- projects and performed regular teaching jobs. taining a master’s degree at Harvard, he visited He retired in 1975 when he was sixty years several medical faculties in the USA and became old, but he was very involved even after that. acquainted with their attitudes towards doctors’ Whenever he had the chance, he spoke or wrote education and specialization. about the causes of the crisis of Yugoslav health Upon his return from the USA, he modern- policies, and about alternative strategies for the ized the classes of his subject, prepared and ed- improvement of the citizens’ health conditions. ited a course book in preventive medicine, col- He published four monographs and series of ar- laborated with the Republic Institute for Health ticles about the population politics and advan- Protection and the Ministry of Health, and tages of the population planning for the poorer trained associates of the Institute for Preventive republics with high fertility. Medicine in synchronized performance of teach- In 1980 he published a course book entitled ing practice, professional and scientific research “The Scientific Basis of the Health Care Organi- tasks. He was farsighted. For some time he suc- zation”. The ideas which he then announced did ceeded in his efforts to organize classes at the not induce administrators in health care politics School of Medicine in Sarajevo on the basis that to change their course and style of work, which we know today as the principles of Bologna. he criticized justly and uncompromisingly. Ac- Twice he was the Dean of the School of Medi- cording to the opinion of academician Žarković, cine in Sarajevo. He was the first at the School of there was amateurish management in our health Medicine in Sarajevo to perceive the importance care system which had a disastrous effect on the of postgraduate studies in the development of tremendous and socially significant health care medical science, and therefore, in 1962, orga- system. Afterwards he organized postgraduate nized postgraduate studies in Public Health and studies in management of health care systems specialization in the methodology of the science and programs. research work. In 1992 he was a guest researcher at the In- As a delegate in the Social-Health Council stitute of Medical Informatics and System Re- of the Federal Assembly and a president of the searches in Munich where he studied and com- Council of “the Federal Health Centre” in the pared the characteristics of the former USSR nineteen-sixties, he opposed the preparation of health care systems and other socialist states of legislation on decentralization of the health in- that time with health systems of other developed surance funds and drafted his own counterpro- countries. On the basis of those comparisons, at- posal. Being feisty and courageous, he collected titudes and suggestions of the international or- signatures of three thousand citizens, and re- ganizations, and study of the theory and practice quested from the Federal Assembly to take into of management in health care, he formulated al- consideration his “Proposal for health service re- ternative programs and strategies suitable for the

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reform of health care systems in former socialist monographs and books, can be found nowadays states. He published the results of his research in in world index bases of medical journals, the several articles and books, which were published libraries of the world health organizations, and in six languages. other scientific and cultural institutions around He published one version of these books with the world. The study of academician Žarković’s colleague co-authors Hrabač and Nakaš in Bos- writing opus deserves to be approached scien- nia and Herzegovina in 1999. Since this book did tifically and should become one of the future as- not produce the expected response, he published signments of ANUBiH. a monograph “Health Care Politics and Man- The greatness of academician Žarković’s life agement of Health Care Systems” in 2004 as an work will be remembered for the numerous emi- ANUBiH publication. nent scientists who developed under his mentor- Ten years ago the Department of Medical ship and who collaborated with him over a long Sciences renewed and activated its former Com- period of time. mittee for Health Care which was led by acade- Repeating the destiny of the people who were mician Žarković. The Committee gave three rec- ahead of their time, he was often misunderstood ommendations for reform of health care in Bos- by those who managed our health care system. nia and Herzegovina, but there was no reaction However, his scientific and social opus in public from the responsible political factors in society. health is priceless, if not at the time for his con- Even in the tenth decade of his life he did not temporaries, it will certainly be for future gen- stop proposing new, contemporary and quality erations. With his inexhaustible, persistent work solutions for reforms of the health care system based on principles, deeply infused with humane for the population. He was and remained a per- intercession for health to become a value of all son with unquiet spirit, inquisitive, communica- people, with his numerous scientific works and tive, decisive and objective. personnel which he directed into the modern In the field of medicine he particularly dealt flows of social medicine, academician Grujica with the organization of the health care system, Žarković held one of the most eminent positions long-term planning in the health care system, in ANUBiH, at the University of Sarajevo, as well health education and population problems. as at the region of former Yugoslavia and beyond. In the area of the former Yugoslavia, in the Academician Žarković received several field of epistemology, he was a pioneer in the awards and medals (Commemorative Medal of research of mass chronic non-infectious disease the Partisans-1941, several war medals and 27th problems, most significant being iodine defi- of July reward in 1963) but not those which were ciency disorder, rickets among children, trauma- rightly his. tism, alcoholism, diabetes, heart diseases, neu- The departure of academician Žarković is roses, injuries of workers in industrial firms in an irreplaceable loss for ANUBiH. He was one Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the influence of the most active and most appreciated mem- of social factors on the growth and development bers of ANUBiH, an unsurpassed reformer in of children and children mortality. In the field of our social service. He left an indelible mark on hygiene, he dealt with population food inspec- medical science and his profession. As a comfort tion, water supply problems, and especially ra- we should hope that many young scientists and diation hygiene problems. employees in public health service will find in- His publications, starting with the scien- spiration in his ideas for more active engagement tific and professional works, scientific reports, in promoting public health.

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