Editorial

Abstract

Dear colleagues,
You have in your hands- or- better to say- at your sight- the first, inaugural issue of the Southeastern European Medical Journal (SEEMEDJ) that is published by Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek- Faculty of Medicine Osijek. There is no better time to start a new journal but in the anticipation of the 20th anniversary of the independent constitution of the Faculty of Medicine Osijek as one of the higher educational institutions of Osijek University.
A wink in history - in 1979, Faculty of Medicine in Osijek started with 50 students in general medicine program, as a branch of Faculty of Medicine Zagreb. In 1998, when it became independent, it had approximately 250 students; and in these 20 years, and particularly in the last 8 years it grew to almost 2200 students enrolled in many biomedical and health sciences, both undergraduate and graduate programs that we offer, including postgraduate doctoral study and having almost 200 teachers and faculties. Such an enormous intellectual potential and diversity of programs that we present have put Faculty of Medicine Osijek in the leading position in the region in education, but also in the scientific activities, including publications.
Faculty of Medicine was one of the co-founders of the Croatian Medical Journal, Medicinski vjesnik and South East European Health Sciences Journal. However, the need to have one’s own journal that will develop into the leading regional scientific journal offering an opportunity to publish in many fields of biomedicine and health sciences have outgrown these previous journals. Upon the initiative of Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Osijek, Aleksandar Včev, SEEMEDJ was founded in January 2017 by the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Medicine Osijek.
SEEMEDJ is an international, peer reviewed, scientific and professional journal that presents original basic and applied research from all fields of medicine (general and clinical practice, and basic medical sciences). It seeks to promote the development and exchange of knowledge that is directly relevant to all spheres of nursing practice (ambulatory, community and family care, home, hospital, primary and secondary practice, and public health), as well as physiotherapy, sanitary and laboratory engineering, laboratory biotechnology, midwives and interdisciplinary studies.
The editorial board is made of renowned scientists and medical professionals from Osijek University and other Croatian universities, neighborhood countries and countries as far as United Stated of America. They all are friends, supporters and professors at the Faculty of Medicine Osijek. Their expertise grants the scientific merit and highest possible quality of the published papers, together with strict adherence to ethical principles in publishing.
This SEEMEDJ Vol 1, No 1, 2017, brings almost twenty papers, original research articles and reviews, authored by researchers from Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary and Ukraine. Topics come from clinical medicine (i.e. internal medicine-cardiology, neurology, pediatrics, microbiology) to basic medical sciences (pharmacology, physiology), physiotherapy, nursing (community care), laboratory biotechnology and diagnostics- all in the scope of the journal. Editorial board hopes that the readers will enjoy reading these papers and find them useful, mind widening and inspirational for future work. We certainly wish authors that their work published in SEEMEDJ achieve high impact on the biomedical scientific community and to live long and cite a lot.
It is important to mention a art work at the cover page of the first issue. It is a painting by Dragan Melkus "Polje poslije kiše (Field after the rain)", 1911, from the Gallery of Fine Arts in Osijek (selected by Ms Valentina Radoš, custos) Dragan Melkus (born in Pozega) was our fellow citizen, renowned Croatian writer and painter. Selected painting is a presentation of our bellowed Slavonian landscape.
On a behalf of editorial board and my own, I warmly greet our readers and invite them to join us in the endeavor of publishing own scientific work in SEEMEDJ.

Sincerely,
Ines Drenjančević, MD, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
Southeastern European Medical Journal (SEEMEDJ)