Medical University in Bydgoszcz, Faculty II

About The University
On 24 November 2004 the Ludwik Rydygier Medical University in Bydgoszcz was incorporated into the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń as the Ludwik Rydygier Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz under the Act of 8 October 2004 on incorporating the Ludwik Rydygier Medical University in Bydgoszcz into the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. (Dz.U. [Journal of Laws] No 241 Item 2414) Currently, Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz provides students with education in the Polish language in three faculties:

• Faculty of Medicine
• Faculty of Pharmacy
• Faculty of Health Sciences

and at the following levels:

• Master's Degree
• Bachelor's Degree
• Doctoral studies (Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Health Sciences)

Education can be pursued in 11 fields of study (medicine, biotechnology, pharmacy, medical analytics, cosmetology, physiotherapy, emergency medicine, dietetics, nursing, midwifery, public health) and a few specializations within these fields.
In the academic year 2008/2009 there are about 5000 students at Collegium Medicum. Besides Polish students, education is received by students from Belarus, France, Germany, Kenya, Mongolia, Russia, Ukraine.
The number of academic teachers employed at Collegium Medicum amounts to about 700.

Dr Antoni Jurasz University Hospital in Bydgoszcz and Dr Jan Biziel University Hospital No.2 in Bydgoszcz function at Collegium Medicum as the base for educating, carrying out scientific research and providing highly specialized diagnostic, medical and rehabilitation services. Except for these, the organisational units of Collegium Medicum work on the basis of:

• Oncology Centre in Bydgoszcz
• Kuyavia and Pomerania Pulmonology Centre in Bydgoszcz
• Provincial Infectious Diseases Hospital in Bydgoszcz
• Ludwik Rydygier Provincial Polyclinical Hospital in Toruń
• Provincial Children's Hospital in Torun

Additionally, Collegium Medicum's didactic activity is based on:

Military Teaching Hospital No.10 with a Polyclinic in Bydgoszcz

Each year didactic and research possibilities of Collegium Medicum are expanding, an example of which is a new building for the paediatric clinic as well as the opening of the Chair and Clinic of Cardiac Surgery, the Clinic of Oncological Surgery, the Chair and Clinic of Oncological Gynecology and Gynecological Nursing. Another spectacular achievement was the opening of northern Poland's first bone marrow transplant centre at the Chair and Clinic of Pediatrics, Hematology and Oncology. Collegium Medicum is taking part in works that aim to create the Regional Centre of Telemedicine which is going to be located in the Dr. A. Jurasz University Hospital in Bydgoszcz.

Research units of Collegium Medicum receive prestigious accreditations:

• The Chair of Forensic Medicine received accreditation of FBI for mitochondrial DNA genetic tests
• The Chair and Department of Clinical Biochemistry received accreditation of ESCODD for measurement of DNA oxidative damage
• The Chair and Department of Radiology and Imaging Diagnostics received the IDEA attestation

High standards of work in our laboratories and a high quality of research procedures are proved by many international and national quality certificates:
For the Chair of Forensic Medicine:
Attestation of the GEDNAP German DNA Profiling Group - biological traces - years: 2000, 2001, 2002 (2 trainings per year)
Attestation of the CTS Corporation - "Forensic biology" - 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 (at least twice a year)
Attestation of the Polish Society of Forensic Medicine and Criminology (PTMSiK) - biological traces - 1998,1999,
Attestation of PTMSiK - analysis of doubtful paternity cases - 1998, 1999
FBI validation qualifying for access to and co-creation of mtDNA database (SWGDAM) - 2000
YHRD validation for determining the 9 loci Y-STR haplotype - 2000
EDNAP validation qualifying for co-creation of mtDNA database (EMPOP) - 2002

The Chair and Clinic of Infectious Diseases:
Certificates of molecular diagnostic testing for HCV - Glasgow 2002/2003 and for HBV, HCV, HIV, CMV, toxoplasmosis - Helsinki 2002/2003

Our chairs take part in international scientific and didactic programs. The employees of Collegium Medicum have scientific relations with research centres in Germany (Wuppertal, Berlin, Kiel), Switzerland (Aarau), Holland (Amsterdam), France (Paris), Sweden (Lund), Norway (Sandvika), Belgium (Antwerp) and the USA (Houston).

The honorary doctorates for Prof. dr Jeana Natali from France (2001) and Prof. Lars Norgren from Sweden (2003) are signs of appreciation for high level international cooperation. The title of Doctor Honoris Causa was also granted to: Prof. Jean Daniel Picard (1998), Prof. zw. dr hab. Stefan Raszeja (1998), Dr.rer.nat. Miral Dizdaroglu (2000), Prof. zw. dr hab. Bogdan Romański (2001), Prof. zw dr hab. Tadeusz Pisarski (2002), Prof. zw. dr hab. Andrzej Bilikiewicz (2004), Prof. zw. dr hab. Jan Domaniewski (2004).

A bit of our history

1. In 1971 the Clinical Teaching Team was appointed in Bydgoszcz. Doc. dr hab. Bogdan Romański was chosen the head of the team.
2. In 1973/1974 full-time studies, with all the courses, were organized for thirty eight 5th year students at the Faculty of Medicine.
3. On 1 September 1975 by the decision of The Minister of Health and Social Welfare the Branch of the Medical University of Gdańsk with the seat in Bydgoszcz was established.
4. In May, 1980, a new hospital presently named after Dr Jan Biziel was opened.
5. On 21 July 1984 the Seym [the lower chamber of the Polish parliament] unanimously passed the bill on establishing Medical University in Bydgoszcz. On 1 October 1984 in the concert hall of the Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rector, Prof. dr hab. Jan Domaniewski inaugurated the first year of functioning of the youngest medical university in Poland.
6. In 1992, 143 students who completed their whole medical education at the Medical University in Bydgoszcz received their diplomas.
7. In 1987 the decision about creating the Faculty of Pharmacy was made and on 1 October 1988 the field of study: Medical Analytics was offered for the first time at the Faculty of Pharmacy. In 1997 the Faculty of Nursing at the Medical University in Bydgoszcz was established with the field of study: Nursing - since 1 October 1997.
8. In December 2003 the then Medical University together with other medical higher education institutions in Poland, science and research institutes of the health care department and the Central Medical Library concluded the agreement on founding the Consortium of Users of Proquest Medical Library and Medline with Full Text Databases.
9. On 24 November 2004 the Medical University in Bydgoszcz was transformed into the Ludwik Rydygier Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz

Admission
Full-time studies in English for foreigners at the Faculty of Medicine, Medical Program are designed for citizens of Scandinavian countries who have not got Polish citizenship. Candidates for the studies shall send their application forms to the Agder Academy in Norway:

A student may be finally qualified for the studies at Collegium Medicum if he/she meets the following requirements:
1) Completed Upper Secondary Education - a student has got Certificate of Upper Secondary Education or other document obtained abroad that is validated or affixed with apostille and gives the right to apply to all types of universities in each country in the system of which an institution issuing such certificates is located, according to the regulations concerning validation of school certificates and Certificates of Upper Secondary Education obtained abroad or on the basis of international agreement, and equal to Polish Baccalaureate Certificate,

2) A student speaks English well enough to participate in classes conducted in English (long-lasting lessons at school or completion of courses at appropriate level),

3) On the Certificate he/she has grades from 2 out of 3 of the following school subjects: biology, chemistry and physics, or possesses other certificates of complementary or higher education,

4) A student paid Agder Academy a guarantee deposit and a charge for recruitment interview in a determined time,

5) A student submitted a valid medical certificate that confirms his/her ability to take up the studies,

6) A student submitted a certified copy of the passport,

7) A student submitted 4 current passport photos with uncovered head,

8) A student responds to the email correspondence obtained from Agder Academy,

9) A student submits to Agder Academy and/or Collegium Medicum all required documents and information in a specified time,

10) A student has undergone recruitment interview and has been initially accepted by the Qualification Commission and then obtained final decision from the Rector or a person authorized by the Rector concerning admission to the studies.

Our patron
Ludwik Rydygier was born on 21 August 1850 in Dusocin near Grudziądz. He studied in Pelplin, Chojnice, Chełmno and Greifswald. He obtained his Medical Doctor Diploma in 1873 in Greifswald where he then started working in a surgical clinic. There, at the age of 24 he received his doctorate (doctoral thesis on surgical antisepsis concerned the effect of carbolic acid (phenol) on tissues and micro-organisms) Next, he moved to Gdańsk where he held the post of an assistant lecturer and later, he moved to Chełmno where he practiced in an outpatient clinic and then in 1877 to Greifswald where he worked as an assistant at the University Surgical Clinic. The subject of his habilitation thesis was a surgical treatment of pseudarthrosis, which was a novelty at that time.

After his habilitation in 1878, Ludwik Rydygier moved to Jena to take the post of the first assistant in the clinic of Professor F. Riedel. A year later he bought a house in Chełmno and adapted it into a private surgical clinic which could compete with the clinic of the Jagiellonian University as far as modern equipment was concerned. In that period of time Ludwik Rydygier made his major scientific achievements. In November 1880, as the first person in Poland and the second in the world (the first was Jules Pean) Ludwik Rydygier carried out pylorectomy caused by stomach cancer, restoring afterwards the continuity of the alimentary tract. Theodor Billroth performed such an operation in January 1881. In November 1881 Ludwik Rydygier as the first person in the world carried out pylorectomy because of a gastric ulcer. The lumen of the stomach cut and narrowed by puckering sutures was anastomosed with the lumen of duodenum. The method of pylorectomy followed by the restoration of the continuity of the alimentary tract by end-to-end anastomosis of duodenal stump

with stomach stump was first described by Ludwik Rydygier. In surgical removal of the pylons both surgeons: Rydygier and Billroth applied two types of gastroduodenostomy. The "end-to-end" type was first used by Ludwik Rydygier and has been named "modo Rydygier" (in German and English nomenclature: "Billroth I"). The second, "end-to-side" type was first used by Billroth and is called the "modo Billroth" anastomosis (in German and English nomenclature: "Billroth II"). In 1884 Rydygier introduced a new method of surgical treatment of chronic peptic ulcer disease by means of gastroenterostomy. He is also the author of an original method of removing prostate adenoma (1900) and many other surgical techniques.

In 1887, Ludwik Rydygier moved to Krakow, where he held the post of the Head of Surgical Clinic and later the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Jagiellonian University. On 2 July 1887 he was nominated full professor of the Jagiellonian University. After he had created a surgical clinic called "Biała Chirurgia" [White Surgery] in Cracow he moved to Lviv in 1897 to work at the University of Lviv, where he was appointed a full professor of surgery. There again he created a surgical clinic similar to the one in Cracow (today it constitutes one of the five surgical clinics of the Lviv State Medical University). Ludwik Rydygier managed the clinic for 23 years and during that period he was the Rector of the University of Lviv and twice the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. At that time he was raised to the nobility.