The Gallus Hall of the Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana hosted excellent doctors and pharmacists of the Central and South-Eastern Europe – the finalists of the International Medis Awards for Medical Research 2019. Over the past six years, the awards for the best research achievements in medicine and pharmacy have become a symbol of excellence in medicine, as they recognize and award the best doctors and pharmacists in the region who besides everyday clinical work dedicate their time also to research of innovations in diagnostics and treatment.

For the prestige awards in nine research areas: gastroenterology, gynecology, intensive care medicine and anesthesiology, neurology, ophthalmology, pediatrics, pharmacy, pulmonology and allergology, and rheumatology, doctors and pharmacists from nine countries of the Central and South-Eastern Europe applied with as many as 207 research works. Besides the researchers from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia, who published their research achievements in established international publications with the impact factor of 1.5 or more, researchers from Bulgaria also joined the contest for the first time this year.

Among the scientific research works of doctors and pharmacists, who from their clinical practice know the needs of their patients best and contribute to innovative and applicative solutions in the area of earlier, more reliable and patient-friendly diagnostics and efficient therapies, an independent international expert panel under the leadership of a renowned Slovenian rheumatologist, Prof. Matija Tomšič, MD, PhD, chose 20 finalists of the contest, announced 9 winners in individual medical areas and presented a special International Medis Award.

Our work is getting more difficult because the contest is more and more recognizable, the studies are getting better every year, and the differences between the candidates are increasingly smaller. One of the most important added values of this contest is the applicability. We need to keep in mind that the strongest inner motivation of the researchers of this contest is to solve the research problem which has a name, surname and a soul, and that without research there is no good clinical practice and vice versa,

emphasized the president of the international expert panel of the International Medis Awards Prof. Matija Tomšič, MD, PhD

This year’s gala award ceremony in Ljubljana, which every year takes place in a different country participating at the contest, besides the ambassadors of the countries which participate in the contests and the international expert public was honoured also by the President of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the academician Prof. Tadej Bajd, PhD.

That the contest is an important opportunity for promotion and popularization of scientific research work and for international connection of doctors and pharmacists, was assessed by the President of the Slovenian Pharmaceutical Society, Matjaž Tuš, Msc Pharm: 

The scientific achievements in the fields of medicine and pharmacy directly decide how to diagnose diseases and what are the clinical, humanistic and economic results of the treatment. This is important for both the individual and the society, thus every contribution to promotion and popularization of science is extremely welcome and valuable. The awards, such as the International Medis Awards, are an excellent opportunity to thank those who co-create the modern doctrine, but are also an encouragement for those who are only at the beginning of their career path or for those who would like to upgrade the routine practice with research work.

The International Medis Awards were created six years ago by Tone Strnad, the founder and the President of the Supervisory Board of the Medis company. This year Medis is celebrating its 30th anniversary of business operations and employs 350 people who in ten countries of the Central and South-Eastern Europe represent manufacturers of innovative medicines and provide these medicines to the patients in the whole region. 

Over the past six years the independent international panel of the International Medis Awards has done an incredible job! It reviewed and assessed as many as 932 research works. I am glad that we recognize these excellent, even magnificent medical stories which give people hope, and promise a brighter future to the next generations. I am especially proud of the mission of this contest, as it encourages medical research and discovering things beyond what is known now in medicine and pharmacy. And of course I am infinitely grateful to both the president and the members of the international panel of the International Medis Awards, as well as to all the researchers in medicine and pharmacy who work hard for new findings, as they are sure that one must always know more for the patients and take better care of them. Sincere thank you!

Tone Strnad, the initiator of the International Medis Awards contest, emotionally addressed the audience in the too-full Gallus Hall.

Patients with chronic sinus inflammation are in the centre of our research, and we aim to contribute to personalized medicine especially for patients with the uncontrolled disease and impaired quality of life. The award will help us a lot to continue research and to achieve the patient-tailored medical and surgical treatment soon.