Authors:
- Amir Muzur – Department of Social and Humanistic Sciences in Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Croatia, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Article type:
IN MEMORIAM
Abstract:
Those who had the privilege to spend time with Alan Šustić know that he was not a man of long speeches and texts. However, they also know that any brief “sketch” attempting to simply and succinctly define him would inevitably fall short.
The scope of Alan Šustić’s contributions to Rijeka, its University, and its medical community is hardly comprehensible. Although he served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (2008–2014), Head of Clinic, Chair of the Department, member of the Management Board of the Clinical Hospital Centre, and held numerous other professional and public positions, he will likely be best remembered as a scientific and organizational innovator and promoter of Croatian anesthesiology, emergency and intensive medicine, ultrasound diagnostics, and ultimately as the founder and first dean (2014–2020) of the Faculty of Health Studies in Rijeka — the first of its kind in Croatia.
His efforts to raise awareness among the Croatian medical public about the importance of quality education for nurses and other non-physician health professionals are immeasurable. How hard he fought for the independence of physiotherapy and midwifery as scientific disciplines, or for the clinical status of nutritionists, remains less well known. He could have been a state secretary or a parliamentary representative, and was even offered the position of Minister of Science — but he preferred to leave those roles to others, content with membership in his local Potok community council.
Keywords:
emergency medicine, intensive care, ultrasound diagnostics