About us

The Department of Internal Medicine and Occupational Diseases was established in 1977, on the basis of the clinical unit of the Kharkiv Research Institute of Occupational Hygiene and Occupational Diseases, on the initiative of the then Rector of Kharkiv Medical Institute, Professor Volodymyr D. Chernenko.

Education at the department is conducted in Ukrainian, Russian, English.

Disciplines taught at the department:

•  Discipline “Occupational Diseases” –
• with 5th year students majoring in 222 “Medicine”;
• with students of I and II courses of the bachelor’s degree studying on a specialty “Nursing”;
• Discipline “Internal Medicine” –
• with students of IV, V, VI courses, studying in the specialty 222 “Medicine”;
• with students of III and IV courses studying in the specialty “Dentistry”;
• Discipline “Current issues of rheumatology” (elective course) – with 5th year students majoring in 222 “Medicine”;
• Discipline “Diseases of Civilization” – with undergraduates majoring in “Technology of Medical Diagnosis and Treatment”
• in the discipline “Military Field Therapy” with 5th year students.

Research focus areas. The Department’s research is multidisciplinary and combines the traditional field of industrial cardiology with modern priorities in internal medicine. In particular, the Department investigates the impact of industrial aerosol exposure and vibration on the cardiovascular and bronchopulmonary systems in machine-building industry workers. In parallel, the Department studies cardiometabolic comorbidity—including arterial hypertension, obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease—by assessing risk factors, mechanisms of disease progression and predictors of adverse outcomes across different occupational groups.

Clinical bases of the department are:

• Clinic of the Research Institute of Occupational Hygiene and Occupational Diseases of Kharkiv National Medical University.
• Military Medical Clinical Center of the Northern Region of the Department of Health of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (unit A3306).
• Kharkiv Clinical Hospital on Railway Transport № 2 Branch “Health Care Center” of PJSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”.

As part of medical and diagnostic work, the staff of the department at the main clinical bases implements the latest methods of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of internal and occupational diseases.

Teachers of the department provide advisory assistance to workers of industrial enterprises and patients of polyclinics of the city of Kharkiv, as well as conduct organizational and methodological work for occupational pathologists and therapists.

Employees of the department are members of the following international associations:

• Heart failure association;
• European Respiratory Society;
• European Association of Preventive Cardiology;
• European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging;
• Council on Hypertension Regular;
• European Atherosclerosis Society.

At the postgraduate stage, graduates of medical Universities are taught:

in the specialty “Occupational pathology”:

• Cycle of primary specialization;
• Pre-certification cycle;
• Cycles of thematic improvement on certain issues of occupational pathology;

In the specialty “Therapy”:

• Distinct topics of the cycle of primary specialization;
• Some topics of the pre-certification cycle;
• Distinct topics of thematic improvement cycles.