History of Department of Pediatrics

The teaching of pediatrics at the Imperial Kharkov University was initiated by Professor Ivan Petrovich Kamensky.Since 1807 the theoretical course of childhood diseases was started at the Department of Midwifery.For the first time in 1812 Kamensky I.P. made a report "About the physical education of children and its impact on their mental and moral state."

However, it was only in 1862 that the medical community began to develop pediatrics, and pediatric thinking became more active.Professor Ivan Pavlovich Lazarevich was appointed to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kharkov University.

He had a great influence on the development of both general and scientific pediatrics at the Kharkov Higher Medical School.

His student Mikhail Deevich Ponomarev in 1873, after defending his thesis "On the origin of blood peri-uterine tumors", went abroad at his own expense to study childhood diseases.Returning in 1875, he first received special pediatric training and took over the teaching of the course of childhood diseases.

On January 12, 1892, by the decision of the Council of the Faculty of Medicine, an independent department of pediatrics was created, Ponomarev M.D.becomes its first head.

In 1902, Ivan Vissarionovich Troitsky was elected to the post of head of the Department of Pediatrics.A graduate of Kiev University, he headed the department for the next 17 years.His activities contributed to improving the quality of teaching pediatrics, developing scientific research, drawing public attention to the needs of the child population.

I.V.Troitsky was a talented promoter of the preventive direction in pediatrics.He paid much attention to the issues of feeding the child, the regimen and diet of a nursing mother.He described the importance of social factors in the etiology of rickets.His main works are "Teaching about childhood diseases" (1908) and "Hygiene of children" (1912).

After leaving prof. Troitsky from Kharkov in 1919, the department was headed by Professor Yakov Sergeevich Arkavin.A graduate of Kharkov University improved his knowledge of pediatrics in Berlin under the guidance of leading figures of world pediatrics - A. Baginsky and G. Finkelstein.In the future, Professor Y.Arkavin never broke off ties with outstanding representatives of German and French science, repeatedly visited the best European clinics, constantly followed foreign medical literature.His library was the best in Kharkov.Under his leadership, places for infants were developed, and the section of physiology and pathology of infants was introduced into teaching.Teaching is conducted with the active participation of students, it becomes more specific and practical.Prof.Ya.S.Arkavin is responsible for a significant improvement of educational and methodological work.The main requirement in educational work was to teach students methods of examining a child through independent work at the patient's bedside.For students, a compulsory visit to the pathological and anatomical autopsies was introduced.Students were taught the skills of research work by participating in conferences, working in circles, performing tasks of a research nature.

In the future, the development of pediatrics was closely connected with the work of the Kharkov Medical Institute, which was founded in 1920 when the medical faculty of the Kharkov Imperial University was merged with the Women's Medical Institute.

After Ukraine gained independence in 1993, the V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University made a decision to restore the Faculty of Medicine.On November 4, 1997, the Department of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology was opened in its structure.In 2008, the Department of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology was transformed in the Department of Pediatrics.From the moment of foundation until 2016, the department was headed by Nikolay Mikhailovich Korenev, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine.

Since the opening of the department, he has paid considerable attention to scientific and pedagogical activities. The subject of his research is, first of all, topical issues of clinical pediatrics and health care of school-age children and adolescents. The achievements of domestic pediatrics in solving the medical and social problems of disabled children with somatic pathology, orphans and children deprived of parental care are associated with the name of Professor M. Korenev.

Under the scientific leadership of Prof. M.M. Korenev, who headed the “Institute for Children and Adolescent Health Care of National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine”, the staff of the department participates in the scientific support of the national and state programs "Children of Ukraine", "Health of the Nation", "Prevention and treatment of arterial hypertension in Ukraine", becomes the organizer of many scientific and practical conferences and symposia. Korenev M.M. became the founder of the modern Department of Pediatrics of the Medical Faculty of V.N. Karazin KhNU, created a team of like-minded people and professionals.

From 2016 to 2022, the Department of Pediatrics of the Faculty of Medicine of Kharkiv National University named after V.N. Karazin was headed by Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Vyacheslav Hryhorovych Chernusky, who worthily continued the work of Professor M.M. Korenev. The entire professional life of V.G. Chernusky is connected with teaching pediatrics and training a whole galaxy of young pediatricians. His scientific research is devoted to issues of childhood immunology and allergology, etiopathogenesis of bronchial asthma in children.

In 2010, the Department of Pediatrics started training students with an English form of education.The first of them were 84 young people from Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Sudan, India and other countries.The successful preparation of foreign students continued, their number increased and it became necessary to expand the potential of the department and clinical base.

To improve the level of professional training of specialists in the specialty "General Medicine" and the training of English-speaking students of the Medical Faculty of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in the specialty "Pediatrics" on the basis of the pediatric department on October 2, 2017, the department of pediatrics No. 2 was created, which is one of the "youngest" departments in the faculty.

It was headed by Natalia Stanislavivna Shevchenko, Doctor of Medical Sciences, one of the leading specialists in Ukraine in the field of pediatric rheumatology.

During the five years of existence of the English-language department, a powerful scientific and methodological base for training foreign students in pediatrics was created. During the period 2017 - 2022, the qualitative composition of the department changed significantly, 6 employees defended their dissertations for the title of candidate of medical sciences and doctor of philosophy, 12 employees received the academic title of associate professor of the department of pediatrics.

The main clinical base of the department since 1997 and to this day remains the leading scientific pediatric institution of the city of Kharkiv - “Institute for Children and Adolescent Health Care of National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine", founded in 1922 (https://iozdp.org.ua). Today the Institute is a multidisciplinary research and clinical institution; it trains personnel of the highest category, develops proposals for State programs and ensures their implementation.

The Faculty of Medicine is developing dynamically. In order to consolidate efforts and preserve the main areas of work in the conditions of the armed aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine, on September 6, 2022, a decision was made to merge the teams of the two departments and continue the work of the single department of pediatrics of the medical faculty. Doctor of Medical Sciences Natalia Stanislavivna Shevchenko has been appointed acting head of the Department of Pediatrics.

The core of the department's team consists of employees with the scientific degree of candidate of medical sciences, authors of scientific publications and methodical manuals in the field of pediatric cardiology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, pulmonology; organizers and members of professional pediatric associations, participants of professional international and interregional scientific and practical conferences, symposia, and congresses held in Ukraine and abroad.

Department of Pediatrics of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University today is a large scientific and pedagogical team of like-minded people, enthusiasts who have enormous potential and are boundlessly devoted to their work, where the best traditions of the Kharkiv school of pediatricians are preserved and multiplied.