The Faculty of Dentistry of UzhNU co-organised an international conference on forensic medicine
On 23-25 April, the international scientific and practical conference ‘Modern achievements in forensic medicine and their implementation in expert practice. Topical organisational issues of the work of regional bureaus of forensic medicine’. Experts from different regions of Ukraine and abroad took part in the conference to discuss current challenges and prospects in these areas.
The purpose of the event was to bring together experts to address current challenges in the field of forensic medicine, in particular in the area of dental identification. It plays an important role in establishing the identity of the deceased, especially in times of war and mass disasters. The conference is another step towards a systematic approach, deepening knowledge and international cooperation.
The conference is organised by the Association of Forensic Physicians of Ukraine, the Association of Forensic Dentistry of Ukraine, the State Higher Educational Institution ‘Uzhhorod National University’; the State Institution ‘Main Bureau of Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine’, the State Institution ‘Transcarpathian Regional Bureau of Forensic Medicine’, the NGO ‘Medical and Biological Research and Training Centre’ - provider of CPD points and IOFOS (International Organisation for Forensic Odonto-Stomatology).
The Dean of the School of Dentistry, Doctor of Medicine, Professor Yevhen Kostenko, opened the event with an introductory speech: ‘We are pleased to have the opportunity to hold this conference at such a difficult time for Ukraine. Today our work is focused on an extremely sensitive and responsible issue. The theme of our conference today is ‘Everyone deserves a name’ so that we can honour the memory of the fallen heroes, give each of them a decent send-off and return their names to them. This noble mission is our common task.’
Then Vasyl Demianchuk, Deputy Chairman of the Transcarpathian Regional Council, was invited to deliver a welcoming speech: ‘I am a doctor by profession, so I can call you my colleagues. You are doing an extremely important job. Today, when our soldiers are giving their lives for the freedom of Ukraine, we must do everything to honour their memory. I wish you fruitful work, new knowledge and decisions that will bring our victory closer.’ Yevhen Laba, Head of the Transcarpathian Regional Bureau of Forensic Medicine, joined the greetings and wished the participants fruitful work.
Valerii Voichenko, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Chairman of the Association of Forensic Physicians of Ukraine and Head of the Dnipro Regional Bureau of Forensic Medicine, also joined the opening remarks. He expressed his gratitude to all the participants and stressed that today there are indeed many issues that need to be addressed jointly. Among them are the identification of the dead and work with repatriates. The Association of Forensic Physicians and the Association of Forensic Dentistry are joining forces to effectively address these issues. Thus, a memorandum of cooperation between the two organisations was signed during the conference. Volodymyr Mishalov, Professor of the Department of Morphology, Clinical Pathology and Forensic Medicine, was the next to address the audience. He stressed that their team has been working in this area for over 10 years. In particular, with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross, an English-language manual was published, which contains provisions on violence, torture and all those events that are taking place today in the context of war.
Vitaliy Povstyanyi, MD, PhD, Acting Head of the Main Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, added to the importance of such events: ‘It is nice to see how practice and science go hand in hand. It is very important to meet like this and discuss our problems, achievements and plans. I hope that the conference will be interesting for all of us, and I would like to say that there are many new and unusual things to learn. Finally, forensic dentistry is being officially integrated into our work.’
The programme of the second day included a plenary session and reports, which were focused on three thematic platforms: ‘Topical organisational issues of the work of regional bureaus of forensic medical examination’, “Implementation of effective solutions aimed at improving the process of identification of the dead bodies” and “Forensic dentistry in Ukraine today and its prospects in the identification of persons”. About 20 scientists spoke in these areas.
Professor Yevhen Kostenko spoke about the contribution of UzhNU to the development of this field: ‘Uzhhorod National University has a research and training centre for forensic dentistry. This is the only institution in Ukraine that trains specialists in forensic science and retrains forensic doctors and gnathologists to identify people by their dental status. The Centre has developed scientific programmes and has over 136 publications, 43 of which are included in Scopus. Today, its director presented the methods used by Interpol to determine age and other important aspects of identification. This is important because dental identification is particularly effective because it preserves individual characteristics longer than DNA.’
Myroslav Honcharuk-Khomyn, Director of the Forensic Dentistry Research and Training Centre, confirmed this and stressed that this conference combines two important areas: forensic dentistry and forensic medicine, which have not been properly integrated before. For more than ten years, Ukraine has been developing methods for age, gender and dental identification that have a theoretical and practical basis. ‘Thanks to such events, we have the opportunity to integrate Ukrainian experience and bring it to the general public, i.e. to implement it in the daily work of a forensic expert. This brings it closer to the European standards envisaged by the Interpol system,’ says Mr Myroslav.
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