Department of Forensic Medicine

Trieda SNP 1, 040 11 Košice, Tel./fax: (+421 55) 622 4275

The Department of Forensic Medicine provides complex educational activity for students of Faculty of Medicine in Slovak and English language. This includes the teaching of compulsory subjects (Forensic Medicine, Medical Ethics), elective courses (Medical Law, Health Damage in Medical Practice, Forensic Criminalistics) and the teaching of subject Forensic Medicine to the students of Faculty of Law. Within Certificated Interdisciplinary Course IB1 created by university-wide project RIFIV, the department provides teaching of elective courses (Ethical Aspects of Thanatology and Human Taphonomy, Ethics and Communication in Medicine with Selected Groups, Bioethics in Environment, Biomedical Research and Ethics) for the undergraduate students, as well as full-time and part-time postgraduate students of all UPJŠ faculties.

Department’s staff in collaboration with the Medico-Legal and Pathological-Anatomical Department of the Health Care Surveillance Authority, as an educational training point of UPJŠ Faculty of Medicine, conduct autopsies in accordance with Concept of Forensic Medicine (No. 17570-1/2006-OZS, 2006/06/19). Doctors specialized in Forensic Medicine also provide expertise in Forensic Medicine branch to law enforcement authorities. Apart from postmortem examination, forensic practice at the department includes microscopic examination of spores in biological material in cases of mushroom poisoning.

In scientific research the department is mainly focused on the use of immunohistochemical methods in selected areas of forensic medicine and other scientific research projects in collaboration with various departments of UPJŠ. Other areas of focus are morphological findings in specific diseases and postmortem changes in liveborn and stillborn infants and in cases of sudden deaths in children and adults. In the area of forensic anthropology and human taphonomy it deals with examination of exhumed human remains. Moreover, the department is engaged in drug prevention in cooperation with a non-profit organization Filia.