St. Petersburg State Medical Academy

The St. Petersburg I. I. Mechnikov State Medical Academy (SPSMA) is a public university located in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. The SPSMA is one of the oldest and largest Russian Higher Medical Schools. Over its 100 years of history, the Academy remains a leading institution of Russia in medicine and training specialists in preventive and clinical medicine.

The SPSMA has a long and proud tradition of educating Russian and international students. More than 35,000 physicians graduated from the Academy. Among the total student population of over 5,000, the Academy has around 1,000 international students from more than 30 countries worldwide.

History
The SPSMA was established in 1907 under the direction of academician Vladimir Bekhterev and developed by the Russian Government through the Ministry of Health on the basis of the laws of Russian Federation.

Name Changes

 * 1907-1920 - Medical Faculty of PsychoNeurological Institute
 * 1920-1936 - Second Leningrad Medical Institute
 * 1936-1946 - The Institute united with a city hospital and named after Nobel Laureate Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov
 * 1946-1994 - Leningrad Medical Institute of Sanitary and Hygiene by the order of the Board of Ministers of the USSR (N 14077 from 22.12.1946)
 * 1994-1995 - St. Petersburg State Medical Academy (WHO Directory, 7 ed., page 329)
 * 1995-Present - The SPSMA was named after the great Russian scientist I. I. Mechnikov (order N 1307-p, dated 22.12.1995)

Academics
The SPSMA trains specialists in medicine of more that 60 specialties. The goal of the Academy is to enable students to apply their knowledge of the fundamentals in an independent consideration of patient's condition, diagnostic options, and therapeutic interventions.

Departments
The SPSMA has 56 medical and academic departments and a teaching hospital, The Peter the Great Hospital built in 1903.

Humanitarian and social-economical subjects
 * Philosophy
 * Sociology
 * Home Russia
 * Social Culturology
 * Latin and Medical Terminology
 * History of Medicine
 * Psychology and pedagogics
 * Physical Training
 * The Russian Language

Natural and Scientific Subjects
 * Physics and Higher Mathematics
 * General Chemistry
 * Bioorganic Chemistry
 * Medical Informatics, Computers

Medico-biological Subjects
 * Medical Biology, Genetics, Parasitology
 * Biological Chemistry
 * Human Anatomy
 * Histology, embryology, Cytology
 * Normal Physiology
 * Microbiology, Virology, Mycology, Immunology
 * Pharmacology
 * Pathological Anatomy
 * Sectional Course
 * Pathological Physiology

Medical-Preventive Subjects (Community Medicine)
 * General Hygiene
 * Social Medicine, Public Health Economics and Organization
 * Epidemiology

General and Professional Clinical Subjects
 * Therapy
 * General care of Patients
 * Propedeutics of Internal Diseases
 * Internal Diseases and General Physiotherapy
 * Faculty Therapy
 * Hospital Therapy
 * Endocrinology
 * Policlinical Therapy
 * Occupational Diseases
 * Phtysiopulmonology
 * Surgery
 * General Care of Patients
 * General Surgery and Anesthesiology
 * Operative Surgery and Topographical Anatomy
 * Resuscitation and Intensive Therapy
 * Surgical Diseases
 * Faculty Surgery
 * Hospital Surgery
 * Surgery of Children
 * Sectional Course
 * Traumatology and orthopedy
 * Urology
 * Dentistry
 * Oncology
 * Obstetrics and Gynecology
 * Pediatrics
 * Pediatrics Infections
 * Infectious diseases
 * Tropical Infections
 * Clinical Pharmacology
 * Skin and Veneral Diseases
 * Curative Physical Culture and Medical Control
 * Radiation Diagnosis and Radiotherapy
 * Medical Genetics
 * Nervous Diseases
 * Otorhinolaringology
 * Ophthalmology
 * Psychiatry and Narcology
 * Forensic Medicine
 * Clinical Biological Chemistry
 * Clinical Immunology
 * Modern instrumental Methods of Patients Examination

Rankings
The Academy is ranked as the leading educational and medical center in General and Preventive Medicine in Russia.

Research
Research performed in the Academy coincided with the fields in which the specialists are trained and includes the following:


 * Development of disease prevention methods by studiing the influences of different environmental factors on human health as well as effects of different lifestyles.
 * Development of concepts which could improve human adaptation capability to substances of syntetic and natural origin and the ways to correct it.
 * Study of pathogenesis, prophylaxis, treatment strategies and prognosis for cardiovascular diseases, most common gastrointestinal tract pathologies, locomotion system abnormalities, hepatic and renal insuffiency.
 * Development of new methods for plastic, vascular, bile duct and bone surgery, and improvements in laser and magnetic diagnostics and therapy.
 * Study of biochemical changes in the body, reliable laboratory and microbiology diagnostics methods, morphological and epidemiological peculiarities of viral hepatitis, its outcome and prevention.
 * Development of methods to prevent and treat diseases which are caused by conventional pathogenic micro organisms.
 * The clinical hospitals of our Academy act as a base for many leading multinational companies in the field of research and invention of new methods of treatment and drugs.

Museums
There are 6 study museums:
 * 3 - at the Department of Anatomy (Anatomy Museum),
 * 1 - at the Department of Public Health (Museum of History of Academy),
 * 1 - at the Department of Forensic Medicine (Forensic Medicine Museum), and
 * 1 - at the Department of Skin and Venereal Diseases (Dermatology Museum).

There is a rich museum of Forensic Medicine which embraces all branches in medico-legal pathologies. Exhibition of the museum are widely used in the education process. Research on corpses is carried out in the Bureau of Medico-Legal Examination of Saint Petersburg - the largest establishment of its type in Russia.

Recognitions
The Academy is recognized by the WHO, ECFMG Commission of the USA, and various medical councils of the UK, Australia, India, Sri-Lanka, Ireland, Sweden, and other European nations.

The Academy is included in the official list of:


 * WHO Directory of Medical Schools, 6th ed. (1988); 7th ed. (2000)
 * Study Abroad (UNESCO) International Handbook of Universities, 18th Edition and UNESKO Study Abroad, 33rd edition.
 * Survey of International Medical Schools (ECFMG-USA)
 * Foundation for Advancement of International Education and Research (FAIMER)
 * International Medical Education Directory (IMED)
 * General Medical Council (GMC) in the United Kingdom

Санкт-Петербургская государственная медицинская академия им. И.И. Мечникова