In Memoriam: Prof. Luka Kovacic, MD, PhD (1940 - 2015)

Abstract

Luka Kovacic Luka, MD, PhD, passed away in Zagreb on April 21st, 2015. He was specialist in Social medicine and organization of health care. Luka Kovacic graduated from the School of Medicine in Zagreb in the year 1965, and after a few years of medical practice he joined the Andrija Stampar School of Public Health in Zagreb. He earned both, MSc and PhD degree from the University of Zagreb School of Medicine in 1972 and 1983, and he advanced in academic career from the assistant position in the Chair for hygiene, social medicine, and epidemiology to full professorship in 2003. He was also trained in Sweden (1964), Scotland (1966), USA (1968 and 1971 when he was trained in Public Health, Epidemiology and Research Methods at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore), Finland (University of Kuopio, 1977) and Alma-Ata (WHO training in Planning and Management in 1985). He paid study visits or served as a consultant in the UK, the USSR, Kazakhstan, Sudan, Cameroon, India, Iran (UNDP), Nigeria (WHO) and elsewhere. At the Andrija Stampar School of Public Health he used to held numerous posts and responsibilities: he was a head of the Department for Hygiene, Social Medicine and Epidemiology 1993-1997 and continued to head the Department for social medicine and organization of health care and was director of the Andrija Stampar School of Public Health till his retirement in 2006; he was deputy coordinator from 1984 and coordinator 1997-2000 of the WHO Collaborating Centre for primary health care; he served as an assistant to the director and deputy director (1984-2004). He served firstly as the coordinator and later as director (1990-1996) of the International 9-week course “Planning and management of primary health care in developing countries” which was held 16 times between 1978 and 1996 at the Andrija Stampar School of Public Health with the support of the Government of the Netherlands and had altogether more than 350 participants coming form 66 countries. His activities and duties were so numerous both within his institution and in the broader Croatian and international public health and medical community that we mentioned only those mostly pronounced or internationally visible. Luka was gifted and dedicated teacher, mentor of six MSc theses and one PhD dissertation as well as altogether more than 200 diploma works for medical and nursing students at the School of Medicine and School of Applied Health Sciences. He was principal investigator in many domestic projects and played a leading role in several international projects and networks. He actively participated in the work of the European network of districts “Tipping the Balance Toward Primary Health Care” (TTB) from 1987, being also its Chairman of the Board and president of the Assembly from 1997 to 2005 and the coordinator of the whole network and the project “TTB Second Decennial Survey of the Health Needs and Health Care for Older People in Europe”, which was implemented in five European countries including Croatia in 2005-2006. He was also a member of the European Society for Public Health and its Scientific Committee since 2000. Professor Luka Kovacic had coordinative role and contributed enormously to the establishment of the Forum for Public Health in South Eastern Europe (FPH-SEE) as a network of academic institutions aimed for the reestablishment of professional cooperation between public health teachers and professionals in SEE. As the result of this cooperation six books were prepared and published between 2004 and 2010 encompassing altogether more than 4300 pages, containing some 250 teaching modules authored by more than 200 authors, among them professor Kovacic co-edited the volume “Management in Health Care Practice” and authored four modules only within it. He has published almost 200 scientific and professional articles and edited several books and authored a few textbooks, among them also a textbook in Social Medicine. He coordinated a number of national and international projects and networks, has organized numerous national and international conferences in the field of public health and health care organization. As Public health expert and educator Luka Kovacic has been a person with great treasure of warmth and experiences. He was right person from whom always you can ask advice for solving a problems. Everybody of us will miss his friendship and honesty and his students will miss his great educational lectures. Sarajevo, September 2015