Anatolii Mykolaiovych ROMANIUK is SumDU honorary professor, head of the Center for Pathomorphological Research, professor of the Department of Pathological Anatomy at the Medical Institute. Over the years of his activity, he has made an invaluable contribution to development of pathological anatomy.

Professor ROMANIUK is the author of 400 scientific papers. Among them, there are about 80 Scopus / Web of Science papers, 4 textbooks on pathological anatomy, 10 manuals, 16 educational and methodological developments and 3 inventions.

We talk to the professor at the Museum of Pathological Anatomy, where more than 600 valuable exhibits are collected, the photos of which illustrate this material. The hero of the day spoke about the unique collection in an interview, and in general shared his thoughts on his professional path. He spoke about formation and modern development of medical science, and also recalled the most interesting moments of his eventful career.

Anatolii Mykolaiovych was born in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast. His parents worked on a collective farm. The professor recalls that in those days his mother and father were very often sick.

– I remember my mother saying: “Go into medicine so that we can have our own doctor”. That’s how I decided to choose this path.

After graduating from eight classes with honors, he entered the Kamianets-Podilskyi Medical School, where he studied for four years in the paramedic department. Received a red diploma and was among the lucky 5% who were allowed to enter a medical institute. Before becoming a university student, he managed to work as a paramedic in the village for several months.

With a smile, Anatolii Mykolaiovych recalls his first practical experience: “We finished our studies at the school in February, and I had to enter the institute in June. During this period of time, in order not to sit at home, I went to work as a rural paramedic. The most memorable thing was when I gave birth for the first time. And the second case: a fox bit a woman in the village, who was then taken to the hospital. In such cases, according to epidemiological orders, it was necessary to make a yard tour of the entire village and find out if there were any other victims. And I went around all houses in the village. And it happened to be raining, so I had to walk in the mud… That is why these first steps into the profession were remembered for the rest of my life. And then in June I entered the Ternopil Medical Institute”.

After the institute and postgraduate studies, he defended the thesis and worked at the Department of Pathological Anatomy. There were 450 graduates in the course, and he was the only one who entered postgraduate studies, which was not easy. He wrote scientific papers, spoke at conferences in different cities.

Tell me in a few lines how did your professional career begin? How did fate bring you to Sumy? What were your first impressions of the city, the university? It seems that it was 1993, the year when a new stage in the development of our institution began – namely, as SumDU?

– The rector of the Ternopil Medical Institute at that time was I.S. Smiyan, his son worked at the Department of Pediatrics at SumDU. The rector then told me that we had no place, so I was being sent to Sumy. I was shocked, because it was so far away. At first, I refused to go, and that was the end of the conversation. And then, about six months later, my colleagues said that a medical faculty had been opened in Sumy. They suggested I go again, because our colleagues had already worked in Sumy and they liked it there. That is how I ended up here. I arrived, looked around – and that is how a new life began. I was still quite young, 38 years old. Right off the ship, they started organizing the department.

Actually, a month after you started working at SumDU, the Department of Pathological Anatomy was created. You became its founder. How was that?

– We organized the department on the basis of the district hospital. When we started, there were four of us employees. And then life went on, we moved constantly: from the district hospital to the dormitory and worked hard on finding a normal place for the department. We turned to the rector, then together to the regional administration, to give us a place in the hospital. We began to work closely with the local pathological-anatomical bureau. It was headed by A.V. Dotsenko. Together, we organized a scientific and production complex: a department, a bureau and a hospital. There were few such complexes in Ukraine. We were engaged in the educational process, science, practice. We took students to autopsy studies, collected exhibits for the museum of pathological anatomy. Such cooperation was very useful and fruitful. It was a combination of training, practice and science.

Please tell us about your professional achievements, scientific research that you consider the most important, significant for the department development?

– For an educational institution, there are two main components: educational process and scientific activity. When the educational process was organized at the department properly, we began to develop the scientific component. It is worth noting that we have paid and are paying great attention to this direction. Therefore, our university has achieved great success, becoming a powerful scientific center. Even then, 30 years ago, the university administration understood that in order to be on par with European universities, we must publish the results of our scientific research in relevant journals. A setting was made for publication of our scientific results in Scopus or Web of Science publications. Due to this, we raised the rating of our research to a high level. This allowed us to participate in international conferences of pathologists. We actually participated in such events almost every year. We began to cooperate with colleagues. Our postgraduates raised it all to a higher level. Now many of them are doing internships in scientific laboratories in Germany, Italy, Sweden.

You are also a co-author of a textbook on pathomorphology…

– Yes. It was decided that each discipline should have its own textbook. And we decided to create such a textbook. Before that, we used a textbook translated from Russian for a long time. But there was a question about whether there should be a Ukrainian textbook. The Association of Pathologists of Ukraine decided to create it collectively. Almost all heads of the departments of pathoanatomy of our country took part in this. I got the part that is close to me from my doctoral dissertation. This is the pathology of the skeletal system.

Do they still use this textbook now?

– Yes, students use it now, it is the main textbook.

And how was the pathological anatomy museum created? And who took the initiative?

– The initiative belonged to me. Why? Because, since I went through training school at a classical medical university, I learned that the pathological anatomy department simply cannot exist without a museum. It is not just a museum, but another resource for learning. If there is no opportunity to show it in the hospital, the student can see it in the museum, which also serves as a training audience. This is more useful than looking at organs in a textbook, it contributes to a better understanding by students of the realities of pathological anatomical practice. The museum collection presents various pathologies. We can clearly see what the heart looks like after a heart attack, oncological diseases, viral infections, pneumonia, blood diseases, gangrene, etc. Therefore, the museum is like an obligatory attribute of the department existence. Therefore, as soon as we started working, literally from the first day, when we see some interesting pathologies, organs affected by various diseases – everything that is of interest to science and the educational process – we dissect, place in a formalin solution, and it becomes a museum exhibit. Now, the museum has over 600 macropreparations, some of them are quite rare, which are not found in other institutions. There are such unique exhibits as Siamese twins. I repeat that our museum is important. We use it widely: for teaching, popularizing medicine, career guidance.

Do you see the interest of applicants and students in pathological anatomy? Does it attract attention of the modern generation?

– Pathoanatomy is a specific direction, not as popular as the others. The percentage of those wishing to be pathologists, as it was before, one or two, no more, has remained the same, because it is a very peculiar industry. So, they do not hurry to join us. But if they are going to the pathanatomy, then these are people who are really aware of their choice, and you can “sculpt” something from such people. As my head of the department in Ternopil joked: “Pathanatomists are the least corrupt employees. And why is that? Because they don’t take bribes. And why don’t they take them? Because their patients can’t offer bribes.” A kind of black humor.

That’s exactly what I would like to ask you about your students. Are there any that you are proud of? Do you have talented followers?

– I am proud of all my students. Why? Because, there are no random people in pathological anatomy. Some random people don’t get in. everyone who came to my graduate school and studied are people who are dedicated to their work (by the way, professor Romaniuk has prepared 18 PhD and 2 DSc experts). That’s why there is a result. As for the students, I can give the example of Roman Moskalenko. When he was a student, he attended a group at our department, did research, and then came to graduate school. He was offered endocrinology, because he studied the thyroid gland in the club, or pathoanatomy. But he chose pathoanatomy, defended first his candidate's thesis, then his doctoral thesis. And now he heads the department (since December 2024), is thoroughly engaged in science, including at the international level.

Let us just mention the international cooperation of the department. With your participation, numerous international contacts have been established in the medical scientific field. Tell us about this area of work, about joint projects with scientists from other countries. What are you working on now?

– International projects are the driving force that allows the department to rise to the appropriate level, precisely thanks to publications, grants, trips. I have never prevented anyone who wanted to go to a country under a grant program or conduct research. On the contrary, I have helped in every way. What does this give? Firstly, it is appropriate international recognition. Secondly, these are again publications that will then affect the ranking indicators.

For example, we have joint research in Germany on carcinogenesis. A team of scientists synthesized markers of carcinoembryonic antigen, and by detecting this marker we can detect how far the tumor is spreading. Our scientific direction of the department has been for probably more than five years – oncology, carcinogenesis, tumor growth and the study of different views on this. In Germany, we synthesized antibodies against carcinoembryonic antigen. Our graduate Mykola Lyndin is preparing a doctoral dissertation based on this. This is a very progressive step in the field of oncogenesis. In Sweden, our graduate Artem Piddubnyi is studying the features of Helicobacter pylori infection of the stomach, in Italy Vladyslav Sikora is studying features of the Alzheimer disease. So, we have different options for research. After all, pathology is generally a science that covers all diseases that exist in the human body.

Last question: What is your professional credo, the main motto that accompanies you throughout your profession?

– A colleague said: “You don’t know how to relax, you just work and work”. This is probably my credo: to work, work and work. Strictly speaking, this is where you find the meaning of life and don’t notice the fears that are happening on the street and the situation we are in. You work, do your job and because of this you get pleasure. You don’t work in order to work, but set yourself some difficult tasks, which you then overcome, solve this tangle of tasks. Thanks to this, there is a result. And it is important that this result is for the benefit of people, their health, their lives.

Support for the team, coordinated teamwork are also important. One person cannot do anything, because it is unrealistic. I tried to create all conditions for development at the department, motivated, facilitated, stimulated each member of our team to work and achieve a high professional level. And from such puzzles of personal professional achievements, the overall structure of success of the entire team is made up.

By the way, the Department of Pathological Anatomy, which Anatolii Romaniuk headed until December 2024, took first place in the university-wide rating according to the results of last year. We sincerely congratulate Anatolii Mykolaiovych on this, as well as on the past anniversary, and wish him good health, inspiration and many more new achievements!