Международный неврологический журнал Том 17, №2, 2021
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Professor Stepan M. Vinychuk — an outstanding medical doctor, scientist, and leader of Ukrainian neurology
Рубрики: Неврология
Разделы: Справочник специалиста
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The influence of Professor Vinychuk’s neurological practice and research on the development of modern neurology is immeasurable and will be appreciated for generations. Professor Vinychuk graduated with honors from the most prestigious medical university in Ukraine, became a famous neurologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, and Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine. However, his medical and life paths were full of trials and not easy.
Achievements
A prominent neurologist, wise mentor, medical doctor, Honored Scientist of Ukraine, Dean, then Vice-Rector for Educational Work for Foreign Students (1990–1992), Vice-Rector for International Relations and Work with Foreign Students (1993–1994), Head of the Department of Neuro-logy (1992–2011) of the Bogomolets National Medical University, Professor Vinychuk is an iconic figure, a leader of Ukrainian neurology who has enriched medical science.
Pedagogical, scientific, and social activity of Professor Vinychuk received the highest awards: medals “For Labor Valor”, “In Memory of the 1500th Anniversary of Kyiv”, “50 Years of Victory in the Second World War 1941–1945”, and “Defender of the Fatherland”. Professor Vinychuk organized the Neurological Center of Oleksandrivska Clinical Hospital in Kyiv and the Ukrainian Center for Multiple Sclerosis (1992–2002), where he became a Chief Scientific Advisor and Director. He is a full member of the New York Academy of Sciences, the National Geographic Society of the USA, the European Neurological Society, the Board of Scientific and Practical Society of Neurologists, Psychiatrists, and Narcologists of Ukraine, and a member of the editorial boards of numerous medical journals.
Scientific work
The main research interests of Professor Vinychuk are vascular di-seases of the nervous system and demyelinating diseases. He is the author of a fundamentally new scientific field in angioneurology — a systemic approach to cerebrovascular diseases and the concept of the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke, “ischemic hype-remia”.
Stepan Milentiiovych is the author of over 420 scientific works, including 10 textbooks and 13 monographs for medical students. He has 33 patents for inventions.
Unique are the works of Professor Vinychuk. He was the first to describe the main types of systemic-cerebral hemodynamic disorders in the acute period of ischemic stroke and developed a method of treating these patients. He is the first to determine the threshold values for cardiac output reduction in patients with decompensated cerebral hemodynamics. He is the first to develop a patented method for the correction of stress hyperglycemia in the acute period of ischemic stroke. Professor Vinychuk improved the criteria for early diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and developed approaches to its treatment depending on the type of the course, stage, and severity of the disease; described the nature of fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis, and suggested improving the treatment of this phenomenon.
Original scientific developments of Professor Vinychuk with his PhD students were the first works in this field worldwide. A classification of pathogenetic subtypes of transient ischemic attacks, methods of their differential treatment, and a prognostic scale for a stroke prediction in these patients were firstly described, developed, and presented worldwide with his co-author and PhD student Olena Ye. Fartushna, MD, M.Med.D, PhD. The scale for evaluating the severity of neurogenic oropharyngeal dysphagia in the acute period of stroke was firstly created and widely presented with his co-author and PhD student, now Professor Anton O. Volosovets, MD, M.Med.D, PhD, DM. Professor Vinychuk and his PhD student Tatiana A. Dovbonos were the first Ukrainian scientists to describe the types of hemorrhagic transformation of cerebral infarction and suggested a method for its treatment.
The latest works of Professor Vinychuk study the phenomenon of diaschisis after acute stroke. He was the first to describe clinical forms of distant diaschisis: crossed cerebellar diaschisis, crossed cerebellar hemispheric diaschisis, and crossed pontocerebellar diaschisis.
University work
When heading the Department of Neurology at the Bogomolets National Medical University, Dr. Vinychuk continued the highest moral traditions of his predecessors’ — Professor Mykhailo Mykytovych Lapinskyi and Academician Borys Mykytovych Mankovskyi, contribu-ting to the clinical and scientific education of medical students, interns, and MD. He led (1986–1992) and supported the work of the neurological students’ scientific circle at the Bogomolets National Medical University. Professor Vinychuk mentored many generations of medical doctors and scientists, including five DM professors and nine PhD students. He was a permanent senior lecturer at the Bogomolets National Medical University. His lectures for students and MDs were marked by high scientific and methodological levels.
The contribution of Professor Vinychuk is of great scientific and practical importance in improving the educational work of students of medical schools. He is one of the initiators of using computers for computer-based testing of students’ level of knowledge at the Department of Neurology. Under his leadership, the software was created, which gained recognition in medical schools of Ukraine.
Life path
Stepan Vinychuk was born during the Holodomor (a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine in 1932–1933 that killed millions of people) in 1933 to a large intelligent family of an experienced accountant in Ukrainian village. Vinychuk family survived the terrorist political repression of the Dekulakization, resulting in the deaths of over five million prosperous peasants and their families. The family went through the horrors of World War II that took the lives of Stepan’s father and brother. Stepan worked hard as a child and a te-enager during World War II, postwar reconstruction, and participated in the restoration of medicine.
Since he is a highly moral, strong-willed, intelligent, deeply sensitive, honest, and hard-working person, Stepan Vinychuk walks every step of his life with dignity, an example of the strength of character, decency, and devotion to his work. Stepan Milentiiovych’s life, medical, scientific, and pedagogical successes are closely connected to his constant hard scientific work. Support for him has always been his family — his wife, MD, dermatologist Zoia Ivanivna, his daughter, MD, neurologist Iryna Stepanivna, and his grandson Ivan, a graduate master of the Institute of International Relations of the prestigious Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Stepan Milentiiovych continues to engage in scientific activities after retirement in 2011. As the Professor notes himself, something inside “provokes the thought: you have to work and do more”. And this calling does not allow him to calm down and stop. Since being retired, Professor Vinychuk published 6 monographs and over 20 scientific papers in periodicals.
Acknowledge
Medical doctors and scientists such as Professor Vinychuk are the pride of the world of medicine. I am grateful to and proud of my teacher, mentor, talented research supervisor Stepan M. Vinychuk — a creative, hard-working, humane, and ingenious person. I am infinitely grateful for his wise scientific leadership, 18 years of our cooperation, friendship, and support.
With boundless gratitude and respect,
Olena Ye. Fartushna,
Doctoral Student of Professor Vinychuk