Kaunas Medical Institute

an institute for training physicians (including those with advanced preparation in biophysics, mathematics, and biometry), dentists, and pharmacists.

In 1950 the medical department of the University of Kaunas (1922) became the independent Kaunas Medical Institute. In 1972 the institute included medical, dental, and pharmaceutical departments; a graduate school; 39 theoretical and clinical sub-departments; the Institute of Cardiovascular Physiology and Pathology; and museums of anatomy and pathological anatomy. Its library contains more than 600, 000 volumes. In the 1972–73 school year, about 3, 000 students were taught in the institute by more than 350 teachers and scientists, including one academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences and Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, one corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 33 professors and doctors of science, and more than 200 docents and candidates of science. The Kaunas Medical Institute is authorized to accept candidate’s and doctoral dissertations for defense. Since 1970 it has been an international center of the World Health Organization for the study of the epidemiology of ischemic diseases of the heart. It publishes collections of scientific studies. The institute has trained about 5, 500 specialists since it was founded.