\\ CMJ books

CMJ Books

The books can be ordered from Medicinska Naklada
Cankarova 13, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Phone 3997444
Fax: 3907041
e-mail: prodaja@medicinskanaklada.hr
Orders can be placed at Medicinska Naklada (for CMJ): Zagrebačka banka, Cankarova 13, HR-10000 Zagreb, swift: zabahr2x, account No. 7001-3269167. Traveler checks, deposits to the bank account, and American Express Card are accepted.

21.12.2022 Charles H Calisher: LET’S GET NOTHING STRAIGHT  A long time ago, somewhere in 2006, when I was the overzealous and overly proud editor of the Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ), I asked Dr Charles Calisher to write a column for the journal… I noticed his sense of humor, but focused on the scientific importance of his writings and on my efforts to encourage him to keep writing.… And then, in 2022, my beloved CMJ asked me to write the foreword for a new collection of Dr Calisher’s columns. I read them calmly, with no editorial anxiety, and made a discovery: Charles Calisher is a great writer!…I love Dr Calisher’s writing, but his CV is so imposing that I do not dare to say that he is a better writer than a researcher (or baseball umpire). I found that he has named far more new viruses than any living member of the arbovirology community, and I also realized that one of Nature’s original creatures was named after him – a Catallagia calisheri. So let’s get something straight: If you like to learn about hard subjects presented with a subtle humor, you will have a great time. From the foreword by Matko Marušić   The book is collection of columns on various topics, which were published by Croatian Medical Journal from April 2020 to December 2022.

21.12.2022 Branimir K. Hackenberger: DATA ANALYSIS IN MEDICAL RESEARCH From foe to friend  The idea behind Prof. Hackenberger’s columns, originally published in the Croatian Medical Journal, was to bring statistics closer to the readers in a humorous yet serious way. The texts might inspire average doctors with no mathematical education to observe patterns in their daily practice and translate these patterns into scientific research, more meaningful and of better quality than they had done before. Regardless of whether these columns deal with data analysis, big data analysis, and R software, or more specific topics such as Bayesian statistics, continuous and discrete variables, or algorithms in genetics, they have been a hit! Not just because their author is a nice, witty, and good man, but because he is a world-renowned expert in his field, and even more, because he is a teacher who knows exactly what problems his students face. From the foreword by Anton Glasnović   The book is collection of articles on the topic of statistics in medical research, which were published by Croatian Medical Journal from February 2019 to December 2020.

21.12.2022 Vladimir Trkulja and Pero Hrabač: Statistically Speaking  Vladimir Trkulja and Pero Hrabač, as teachers at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine, are very much aware of the difficulty statistics poses for medical students and researchers in biomedicine. This knowledge prompted them to write a series of texts elucidating the elementary statistical terms and concepts. They were also aware that these texts needed to be written in a simple manner not to further alienate their audience from the subject. The texts are informative enough to be educational, and simple enough to be read without dark thoughts or the need to take regular breaks. I hope you will enjoy the texts. If you read them with comprehension, you will be one step closer to a critical interpretation of scientific papers, and the goal of the texts will be largely fulfilled. From the foreword by Josip Juras   The book is collection of articles on the topic of statistical terms and concepts, which were published by Croatian Medical Journal from February 2019 to December 2020.

9.1.2015 Bio-objects and their boundaries: governing matters at the intersection of society, politics, and science. Edited by: Srećko Gajović  Bio-objects are created when society recognizes a difficulty in classifying a biological entity in a particular category. This process of bio-objectification, in which bio-objects challenge the boundaries of categories and escape conventional categorization, can generate controversies that need to be addressed by society. The bio-objects presented in this book are examples of the difficulty of discerning living from non-living entities, human from animal, or organic from non-organic. Many of these bio-objects are used in biomedical research and applications, and include cell lines, embryos, bio banks, and gene technologies. Recognizing the existence of such bio-objects opens the question of how to govern and regulate them, and how to communicate and manage bio-object controversies.   This book is a collection of articles focused on the topic of bio-objects, which were published in Croatian Medical Journal from October 2011 to December 2014 by the members of COST Action IS1001 - Bio-objects and their boundaries: governing matters at the intersection of society, politics, and science.

13.9.2013 Charles H. Calisher - Let's Get Something Straight  Humor is difficult to define and to understand, particularly in a second language, but Dr. Charles Calisher took on the challenge to write a column for the Croatian Medical Journal, which resulted in the 20 texts reprinted here. These range from comments on writing, modern genetics, taxonomy, incompetent laboratories, bioterrorism and natural disasters, the effects of poetry, humor itself, and immunology, to the breadth of our overall knowledge (not impressive), the need for proactivity in preventing diseases, public health in general, current funding dilemmas, suggestions to improve the Olympics, ideas for a scientific amusement park, clarifying ''influenza'', the health care summary of the USA, Calisher's contemplations about retirement, and a brief summary of his experiences in what was Yugoslavia and what is now Croatia, from 1971 to 1992. These columns, both amusing and informative, serve as Calisher's fantasies about the world as he would like to see it, criticizing systems, governments and people he thinks should be criticized. http://neuron.mefst.hr/docs/CMJ///Calisher-ch.JPG

26.10.2010 Matko Marušić - Life of an Editor ISBN 978-953-176-4780, English, 51 pages, price Euro 5 (postage not included) What does it take to be an editor of a small journal at the scientific periphery, in a Balkan country going through a war and post-communist socioeconomic transition? Matko Marušić, professor of physiology and immunology at the University of Split School of Medicine and a prolific writer of short novels, tells a story of how he fought against such a string of unfavorable adjectives for a scientific magazine to fulfill his dream of making a good international journal.

7.9.2009 Norman Sartorius - Pathways of Medicine This book deals with health and demonstrates - in the words of Dr Saraceno, the Director of the WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance abuse Control that "... health is more than treating diseases and preventing them: it also has to do with values such as equity or justice, with human passion and compassion. Health is more than the health sector and health professionals; it is, ..., in Sartorius' words, a dimension of human existence regardless of the presence of diseases, somewhat like the sky that remains in place even when covered with clouds." The essays included in this book deal with the relations of health and society, with the predicament of medicine in our changing world and with the dilemmas facing doctors and other health personnel in their daily routine and life

19.12.2008 Joanna Santa Barbara: Medicine and Peace ISBN: 953-176-362-3, English, 151 pages, price US$12 (postage not included) Series of columns by Joanna Santa Barbara on medicine and peace, published in the CMJ from 2004 to 2006 Many of us have been inspired in recent years by the appearance on the horizon of a new field of study. This field goes by a variety of names: Peace-through-health, Peace Medicine, and Health as a Bridge to Peace. Intent on improving human well-being, the cultivators of this field are prepared to take down the fences separating the fields of health and of peace--prepared as well to undertake experiments in interdisciplinary cross-fertilization. They wish to study, and to nurture, the mutually supportive social and biological systems that increase the peace and the health of communities. I commend the Croatian Medical Journal for taking leadership in these exciting developments by engaging Joanna Santa Barbara to write a series of articles, collected in this volume, on “Medicine as a Bridge to Peace.” Dr. Santa Barbara has been in the forefront of Peace Medicine for over ten years, and she brings extensive study and practical experience to her task. From the foreword by Graeme MacQueen http://neuron.mefst.hr/docs/CMJ///Medicine and Peace.jpg

19.12.2008 Reuben Eldar: Quality of Care ISBN 953-176-302-8, English, 170 pages, price US$12 (postage not included) Collection of essays contributed to every issue of the Croatian Medical Journal from October 2001 to February 2005 and published in its column "Quality Corner". Quality improvement is driven by quality measurement. Until we measure what we are doing, we seldom realize how far our performance falls short. Then when we see where we need to improve, we must work out how to improve. Quality measurement and improvement require new knowledge and skills that we did not learn in medical training. Nevertheless, quality measurement and improvement are now an integral part of medical practice. These critical activities can't be assigned to a new breed of specialists in health care research. All practicing physicians must know how to measure and improve their work. From the preface by R. Heather Palmer http://neuron.mefst.hr/docs/CMJ///Quality of Care.jpg

19.12.2008 Revitalization of Academic Medicine, Ana Marušić, Editor ISBN 953-176-276-7, English, 177 pages, price €15 (postage not included) This book contains a delightfully eclectic range of thought-provoking articles that will help stimulate this deep and broad international debate. As we move into this new millennium, it is important to think about the future of the “research and development” base that medicine relies upon to optimize health and healthcare. Knowledge is a common good and with the advances in information technology it makes sense to take a global perspective. Thus it is good to see articles from a variety of countries: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Republic of Macedonia, Malawi, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and USA. From the preface by Peter Tugwell

19.12.2008 Eduard Klain: Psychotherapist in the Croatian Independence War ISSBN 953-96875-2-7, English, 131 pages, price US$12 (postage not included) Renowned Croatian group psychoanalyst describes his activities,contacts,and experiences during the 1991-1995 Croatian Independence War. With a sharp and merciless insight into human souls and essence of events, Klain offers a witty and exciting text, which is at the same time a testimony, analysis, and critique. Especially valuable is his analysis of his colleagues’ destinies ten years after the war.

19.12.2008 Mirna Šitum: Oranges and Dead Fish ISSBN 953-176-234-1, English, 107 pages, price US$10 (postage not included)  This book is a collection of war memories of a strong woman who, without a slightest hesitation, put her knowledge of the emergency medicine at service to Croatian Army at the beginning of the Croatian Independence War 1991-1995. Once having made such a decision, she was not to be refused by the Croatian Army, nor stopped by enemy fire in her fight for soldiers’ lives. She went though all the battles and hardship of the 4th Guardian (Split) Brigade of the Croatian Army, caring for the wounded soldiers and suffering with all of them. Twenty-three stories between these covers were originally written and published as a column Physician in War in the CMJ during 2000-2003.