IVO PADOVAN (Blato on island Korčula, February 11, 1922 – Zagreb, December 19, 2010), a renowned Croatian otorhinolaryngologist, full member of the Department of Medical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and its long-term vice president and president, founder of the League Against Cancer and the Central Tumour Institute, one of the founders of clinical audiometry, was mostly engaged with diagnosing and treating malignant tumours and aesthetic-reconstructive surgery.

He finished primary school in his native Korčula, and attended the classical grammar school in Dubrovnik and Zagreb. In 1944 he joined the partisans, and in February 1945 he was assigned to serve in the partisan hospital in Podgarić near Čazma. After the war ended, he returned to Zagreb, where he continued his medical studies and where he graduated on July 5, 1947. He completed his specialisation in otorhinolaryngology in 1950. From 1952 he worked in the ENT department of the General Hospital “Dr. Mladen Stojanović” (today the Clinical Hospital Centre of the Sisters of Mercy), with Professor Šercer, which he mentioned in a book he wrote about Šercer when he was the president of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. From 1966 to 1988, he was head of the Clinic for Otorhinolaryngology and Cervicofacial Surgery. He was the co-founder of the Institute for Research and Protection of the Ear and Respiratory Organs in 1961 and the first Institute for Thalassotherapy and Treatment of Respiratory Organs in Crikvenica. It was according to the projects he worked on that the Audiostrob-Padovan device was designed for diagnosing respiratory diseases and the physiology of the voice generator. He studied at numerous clinics in France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain and Russia. He was one of the founders of clinical audiometry, engaged in aesthetic-reconstructive surgery and the diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumours. His pilot project from 1966 resulted in the establishment of the League Against Cancer, and he is one of the founders of the Central Institute for Tumours and similar diseases, which started operating in 1968. He was a member of both professional and scientific organizations in the United States, Great Britain, France and Switzerland, and for eight years he was also a member of the Council of the International League Against Cancer.

In 1975 he became an associate member and from 1983 a full member of the Department of Medical Sciences at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. From 1989 he was the secretary of the Department of Medical Sciences at the Academy, from 1991 to 1997 vice president, and, serving two terms, from 1998 to 2004, he was the president of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The Croatian Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy, at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, is home to the legacy of the Croatian otorhinolaryngologist Ivo Padovan. His legacy became part of the museum property in 2018-2020 by virtue of his wife Ivica Padovan and daughter Adriana Vincenca Padovan. The donated material is a valuable starting point for researching the history of medicine, that is, otorhinolaryngology, through the activities of a prominent representative of this clinical speciality.

The donated material is a rare example of preserved material evidence of this doctor’s work, exhibiting a wide range of Padovan’s activities within the profession, but also a special social and cultural engagement outside of clinical work, as part of the establishment and development of medical institutions and similar. It is a diverse and interesting medical heritage that will certainly be a good starting point for preparing the museum’s thematic exhibitions in the future. Until then, we will single out only one part of the collection, a rare example of a preserved recording of a filmed surgery performed by Ivo Padovan in 1954. This digitised film was shown at the Museum Night on January 29, 2021.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb7DUU3O9qM

The article about this donation was published in the journal Rad CASA – Medical Sciences:

Brkić Midžić S, Fatović-Ferenčić S. The memory of heritage: Donation from Ivo Padovan’s legacy preserved at the Croatian Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Rad Hrvatske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti. Medicinske znanosti. 2021;547= 54-55(54-55):110-119.

Full text is available at this link:  https://hrcak.srce.hr/260199