Rastislav Maďar, a Doctor With His Heart in the Right Place (2. strana)

STYLE INTERVIEW Rastislav Maďar, a Doctor With His Heart in the Right Place Medical Practice, again. Additionally, we would like to open a programme of stomatology, a part-time programme of public health protection, to accept more foreign medical students to study in English, to acquire accreditation for the new postgraduate doctoral programmes, to support science and research, to increase the number of quality scientific publications and larger grants, to be able to have our own habilitations and professor appointing procedures, and much more. These are both short- and long-term goals that should be achieved through a well-adjusted system. That will also prevent problems from past years from repeating themselves. How do you evaluate the current status of Czech healthcare? Czech healthcare is among the best in the world but, unfortunately, the current coronavirus pandemic is testing it hard. But the medical staff keeps resisting, despite a series of political mistakes, even though they have to bear the consequences of incorrect decisions of other people. For many years, you have been the medical director of the vaccination centre at the Ostrava-Hrabůvka health centre. How did you get into medicine at all? I decided to become a doctor when I was eleven years old and I saw a TV documentary about famine in East Africa. Since then, I have never doubted that I would make it, even though there are no doctors in our family. And the amazing thing is that I am happy that I made that decision and I still think it was the right one, even now, after twenty-four years of practice. In 2020, you were elected to the position of Dean of Medical Faculty at the University of Ostrava. We are curious-what are your goals in this position? The main goal is to acquire the accreditation for our main study programme, General You have travelled through more than ninety countries; you also visit Africa quite often. What is the goal of these trips? I go to Africa for humanitarian missions, but these won’t be possible this year, as they weren’t last year. These are beautiful moments. You are filled with energy even though you work intensively all day. We often visit areas that have never been visited by any white man, or a doctor, and we treat the poorest people in the world. Your life story could be made into travelogue. What event in your life left the biggest imprint on you? Most certainly it was the birth of my son, who is now eleven years old already. As of now, he has visited more countries than many adults, which improves his knowledge about the world and his education. He is too small for the missions yet, but I hope that one day he will continue in my footsteps. You established the international humanitarian organization called International Humanity. What made you do this? I gave lectures all around the world before and I saw how little it takes to help so many people. But you have to do it right. Therefore, we founded a non-profit organization which uses every donated Czech crown for the poor and ill. It has been successfully operating for seventeen years and we can be proud of what we have achieved. You are the author of more than 450 scientific and professional publications, which is an impressive number. What topics are the most important for you? During my whole practice, I have mainly focused on infectious diseases in my publications. Most of my publications were about hospital infections, travel and tropical medicine and, of course, vaccinations. In one radio interview, you mentioned that you are one-half from Ostrava. What does the Moravian-Silesian region mean for you? I have lived in Ostrava for twenty years, I love it and consider it my home. I feel patriotic about the city and the region. You are known to be a very active and busy man. How do you relax in your free time? I gain energy from sport, traveling and organizing help for the people in need. These three things give me the most energy. Together with my family, of course. In the end, we would like to ask you what is your favourite place in the Moravian-Silesian region and your favourite regional food? We like to visit Malenovice, which is a kind of our base for trips to nature. And as far as the food is concerned, I like simple things, like ‘silesian striky’ (potato pancakes). I found out twenty years ago that, in combination with bean soup and smoked meat, it is called the ‘miner’s lunch’. Thank you very much for the answers. POSITIV 1/2021 ǀ 75