Lithuanian Radiologists’ Association: a historical glimpse

Abstract

Following Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s discovery of x-rays in November 1895, a demonstration of x-ray equipment in Vilnius took place in April 1896, performed by M. Resner and A. Gershon. The first radiology units were opened in Vilnius in 1896 by F. Dembowski, in 1900 by L. Stembo and in 1903 by L. Ivanter. In 1914, the first Röntgen unit in Kaunas was opened by A. Lapin. During the 1920s to the 1940s, the capital Vilnius was part of Poland, thus the history of Lithuanian radiology in that period was created mostly in the temporary capital Kaunas. In 1920 the first lectures on radiology were delivered by the surgeon J. Žemgulys in the higher courses of education in Kaunas. In 1921, the first scientific publication on radiology in Lithuanian was published by J. Žemgulys in Medicina journal No. 4 (Review of 25 Years of Roentgenology). In 1922, the first Lithuanian book on radiology, Roentgen Rays. What Is Possible to do With Them and What Is Not, was published by the physician and radiologist P. Kalvaityte. At that time there were six radiology units in Lithuania. In 1925, the Department of Health adopted the specialty of physician radiologist. The first were the surgeon J. Zemgulys, physician-radiologist P. Kalvaityte, O. Kerpauskaite and E. Jacevicaite (Figure 1). In 1939, a course on radiology was added to the curriculum of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Vytautas Magnus, delivered together with general medical specialities. In 1948, a course on radiology was also added to the curriculum of the Faculty of Medicine at Vilnius University, delivered together with internal diseases. In 1954, the position of expert-consultant at the Ministry of Health of Lithuania was introduced. The aim of the new position was inspection of application of x-rays in the field of radiotherapy and radiodiagnostics. The first chair was V. Lapinskas and since 2009 the experts-consultants have been Prof. A. Basevičius an [...].