Editorial Excellence and Pathological Precision: The Career of Dr. Ivan Damjanov
Dr. Ivan Damjanov is a distinguished figure in the field of pathology, known for his extensive research and contributions to medical education. Born on March 31, 1941, in Subotica, he has built a career that spans several decades and continents.
Educated at the University of Zagreb, Dr. Damjanov completed his medical degree in 1964, followed by a postgraduate study in experimental biology. He started his academic career at the same university, serving as an assistant and later associate professor in general pathology and pathological anatomy from 1966 to 1974.
In 1974, Dr. Damjanov moved to the United States where he continued his illustrious career in academia. He held professorial positions at several prestigious institutions, including the University of Connecticut, Hahnemann Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and ultimately the University of Kansas School of Medicine. At Kansas, he was the Chairman of the Department of Pathology until 1997 and continued as an attending physician until his retirement in 2018.
Dr. Damjanov’s research has primarily focused on developmental biology, particularly the differentiation and growth of embryonic and malignant cells, and the pathology of germ cell tumors and embryonic stem cells. His clinical interests lie in tumor markers and the pathology of the urogenital and gastrointestinal systems.
With over 400 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Damjanov has also made significant contributions to scientific literature, including serving as the editor of the 10th edition of Anderson’s Pathology (1996) and authoring the widely used textbook, Pathology for Health Professions, now in its sixth edition. His work has not only advanced the field of pathology but has also been instrumental in educating generations of medical students and professionals worldwide.
Dr. Damjanov is a corresponding member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Vojvodina Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been recognized with numerous awards, including the prestigious Tom Kent Award for Excellence in Pathology Education from the US Group for Research in Pathology Education (GRIPE). He also received two honorary doctorates: from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, and the Charles University, Prague, Czechia.
Dr. Damjanov’s Perspective: The Interview
Career Overview and Motivation
Throughout your extensive career, you’ve contributed significantly to the field of pathology. Could you share what initially drew you to this field and what continues to motivate your involvement?
Thank you for asking me this. It is an honor of special significance for me since I have been following your journal, interacting with the editors, and supporting your efforts as much as I can, for so many years.
You are right, I had a rather long career in pathology, which began in 1964 soon after I graduated from my Medical school in Zagreb. I started my medical education to become a psychiatrist. Those days most hospitalized psychiatric patients were treated by electro-shock, and I couldn’t see myself performing that form of therapy, that appeared so cruel to me. Thus, I began thinking of internal medicine. Finally, I switched to pathology, reasoning that this would give me more opportunity to study the etiology and pathogenesis of diseases.
What were some of the pivotal moments or influences that shaped your career in pathology?
As a young man, I read about Abraham Flexner, the great reformer of American medicine. In his 1910 report, Flexner formulated his recommendation for future academic physicians in the USA stating that they should all have a tripartite career, which included basic research, clinical practice, and teaching. To learn how to do research I joined Professor Nikola Škreb, a developmental biologist and my most important teacher at the Medical Faculty in Zagreb who taught me how to love science. To learn clinical pathology, I went to the USA, where I practiced almost for 50 years. Teaching I learned by interacting with medical students and residents and writing textbooks in Croatia and America.
Contributions and Research
Looking back over the last decade, you’ve been involved in a range of projects and publications (articles and books). Could you highlight one or two works or books that you are particularly proud of and explain why they hold a special place in your career?
I published more than 400 indexed scientific papers, which were cited more than 19,500 times, with a h-index of 62. However, my most important research paper (Nature (Lond.) 227:503-504, 1970) I coauthored with my medical school friend Davor Solter and professor Škreb, at the beginning of my scientific career in Zagreb. It opened the doors of world-class science and allowed me to participate in subsequent stem cell and monoclonal antibody research that preoccupied me till the end of my active life.
My favorite textbook (Damjanov I: Pathology for Health Professions, Elsevier 1995) is still in print and will be in its 7th edition next year, 30 years after it was published for the first time. During that time, it sold some 250,000 copies and was translated into several languages.
Among the books for practicing pathologists, I would like to mention my work on Anderson’s Pathology. In 1995 I edited the 10th edition of this long-lived, almost 2000 pages long, American classic textbook. It took me four years to complete that task with my friend James Linder as coeditor and over 150 contributors from North America and Europe. It sold well but it did not make me rich. On the other hand, it contributed quite a bit to my name recognition in America as well as worldwide.
How do you see the future of pathology evolving with advances in technology and medicine?
I cannot imagine major advances in contemporary medicine without pathology and I still believe that one of the fathers of modern medicine, William Osler was right when he said: “As is our pathology so is our practice.” I saw pathology reinvigorated by immunohistochemistry and molecular biology and similar advances based on basic research will keep it at the forefronts of 21th century medicine. Pathology has a bright future, but it would be foolish, and completely impossible to predict which way it will evolve.
Role as an Educator and Mentor
As an educator, what do you believe are the most important qualities for medical students to develop?
My entire life I did not teach medical students to memorize a myriad of trivial facts and study “only the stuff that will be on the exams”. My goal was to teach them to think like doctors, practice science-based medicine, and be ready to accept novelties that have been critically proven to be useful for improving outcome of the patient care.
Over the years, you have received numerous awards for your teaching, including the prestigious Tom Kent Award. Could you share what you find most rewarding about teaching and mentoring upcoming pathologists?
It is nice to receive awards and especially share the fun of it with those who have given it to you. I spent a good portion of my life teaching not to earn the rewards for it but because I loved interacting with students and transmitting my knowledge to them. I could not imagine my life without teaching.
For me, the greatest award was when one of my students would receive an award for his achievements. Leonardo da Vinci said “Poor is the student who does not surpass his master”, and I think that he was right. I modified that aphorism for my usage and wrote once ”Poor is the teacher whose students did not surpass him”. With pride, I can tell you that many if not most of my former trainees became better pathologists or scientists than I!
Editorial and Reviewer Roles
What motivates you to contribute to ‘The Pathologist’ journal? How do you feel your articles and interviews impact the readership and the broader medical community?
I am a pathologist and thus I feel that it is my solemn duty to contribute to our group effort and promote pathology. I take pride in the achievements of other members of our professional group. To highlight that I have written about my colleagues and interviewed quite a number of them for the magazine The Pathologist. I think that these interviews contribute to the visibility of pathology as a profession and may even help recruit young physicians to follow in the steps of these super achievers.
You have conducted numerous interviews with distinguished doctors from your Medical school in Zagreb. What inspired you to start this series, and what do you aim to uncover or achieve through these conversations?
When I was a medical student I wanted to take one of my clinical professors as a role model for my future academic career. Thus, I went to the medical library of our faculty and searched through the volumes of Excerpta Medica and Index Medicus to find the published papers of my professors so that I could read them. I did not find in international journals too many publications authored by them. I was disappointed, and decided to publish as many scientific papers as possible, not to disappoint future medical students who might peruse the indexes for the publications of their professors, while they are looking for role models!
The same reasoning led me to start the series of interviews of former students of the Medical Faculty of the University of Zagreb who became famous abroad.
I have done 15 such interviews so far, and we published them in Croatian on the official faculty website mef.hr. My friend Professor Marko Pećina, who is a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, arranged that the English version of these interviews be published in English in the Academy’s Journal (Rad HAZU).I do not know who reads these interviews but I hope that some medical students and young doctors will find them interesting and inspirational. Maybe some of them will follow their famous predecessors and become path-finding physician-scientists.
Relationships and collaborations
You’ve often collaborated with other professionals in your field. Are there any colleagues you would like to acknowledge for their impact on your work or any particular collaboration that was exceptionally fruitful or enjoyable?
My most productive collaboration in basic research was with Davor Solter and his wife Barbara B. Knowles. As a pathologist, I was lucky to have as a mentor in the USA a leader of American science, the physician-scientist and pathologist, G. Barry Pierce. He was one of the pioneers of immunohistochemistry and he was working on the “borderland between embryology and pathology”. I tried to follow in his steps. In Philadelphia, I worked for Emanuel Rubin, who was my chairman for 17 years and taught me the tricks of the trade of clinical research, patient care, and the business of pathology.
You’ve maintained professional relationships with many doctors from the Balkans and beyond. Could you describe how these relationships have influenced your work or the field of pathology in the region?
I grew up in a country called Yugoslavia, and even after that country fell apart, I continued maintaining good relationships with my colleagues not only from Croatia but from other newly formed states as well. In my American house in Philadelphia and later in Kansas, I had guests from the entire former Yugoslavia. Furthermore, I often sponsored their visits and secured paid fellowships for several of them. I also helped them with publications, research chemicals, and even equipment, such as microscopes. I also wrote about them or interviewed some of them for the magazine The Pathologist.
Some of them reciprocated and used to invite me to their meetings and hosted me during my visits to the old country. In Vojvodina, the northern part of Serbia, where I was born, my old friend Živka Eri, a professor of pathology in Novi Sad, managed to get me an honorary doctorate from her University. I was also elected to become a corresponding member of the Vojvodina Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Relationship with Biomolecules and Biomedicine Journal
Could you describe your relationship with the journal Biomolecules and Biomedicine (previously Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences)? How did you become involved with this journal, and what has been your role or contribution to this journal over the years?
I met Semir Vranić the current Editor many years ago while he was still a resident in pathology, and then during his USA research fellowship in Nebraska. When Semir became involved more actively with BJBMS I helped him solicit some review articles for the Journal. Some of these articles are still being cited and have contributed to the rising citation index of the Journal. I also reviewed some articles submitted to the Journal, although, admittedly not too many anymore, since my expertise in molecular biology is marginal.
You have co-authored several publications with Dr. Skenderi and Dr. Vranić. Could you highlight one or two of these works and explain the research behind them?
I did not work on any research paper with them but we coauthored three publications and published a book together. The most cited of these papers (33 times) is a short review article published in BJBMS about a rare salivary gland tumor that has some features of a breast tumor. The second article published in Virchows Archiv, cited 14 times, was an invited review about the necessity of histopathologic examination of all specimens removed surgically from the human body.
Dr. Husref Tahirović has spent considerable time researching Dr. Samokovlija’s contributions to medicine and literature. What inspired you to review this work for Biomolecules and Biomedicine, and what unique perspectives do you believe this book brings to the readers?
I like history and I liked the way Professor Tahirović wrote about Isak Samokovlija, a physician and well-known Bosnian writer, whose stories I read as a teenager. I thought that it was important to publish this book review just these days when we have a major confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians and compare it with Bosnia some 100 years ago, in which Isak Samokovlija, a Jewish doctor was treating his patients who were mostly Moslem. If Jews and Muslims could live in peace together then in Bosnia, why couldn’t they live the same way now in the Middle East? It is worth mentioning in this context that Dr. Tahirović stems also from a Muslim family.
Challenges and Achievements
Can you share any memorable experiences or challenges you faced in your career and how you overcame them?
Sorry, I prefer not to answer this question since I do not like to dwell on all those challenging experiences from my past. There were many, but as you can see I managed to survive and I am still OK – not so bad for a man of my age (83 years).
I like quotes and thus allow me one of Winston Churchill’s: “I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else”.
What do you consider your greatest professional achievement and why?
I like building bridges and I think that I have built a couple of worthwhile virtual bridges in my life. Across the Atlantic between Europe and the USA; Croatia and the other states that were formed from the remnants of former Yugoslavia; members of different religions and political persuasions, to mention some of those that I cherished building up there in the skies. Even if my bridges are not always so visible to everybody. But that does not matter, as long as I can see them in my mind’s eye.
Perspectives and Advice
With a wealth of experience in both clinical practice and academic research, what advice would you offer to younger colleagues embarking on a career in pathology? Additionally, are there any new projects or initiatives you are particularly excited about?
My advice to my students and younger colleagues has always been to follow your karma, try to find “what makes you tick” and then just do it. And remember the verses of Robert Browning: “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?”
I have scaled down my plans for the future, but I still have two unfulfilled wishes as follows:
I would love to see in the not-so-distant future a Croatian or even European medical licensing examination, similar to the American United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). Furthermore, I would like also to persuade medical schools to use open-ended, computer-based examinations that would be closer to real-life medical practice than current exams based on multiple-choice questions. However, I do not believe that I will see these initiatives come to fruition in my life span.
How do you stay motivated and passionate about your work after so many years in the field?
You can teach people to pass examinations, to plan their lives, to learn various trades or very useful skills. However, it is very difficult if not impossible to teach most people how to be passionate about certain things. Passion and internal motivation you either have in yourself or you do not have. Try to find out if you have it and if you convince yourself that you do, the rest is easy Just do it (like the Nike company motto!).
Future Aspirations
As you look to the future, are there any specific goals or projects you are particularly excited about or new directions you wish to explore in your field?
Sorry to disappoint you but I don’t have any major plans. I get up every morning, look at my to-do list for that day, and try to finish at least some of my self-imposed tasks. Day by day, step by step, mumbling the Doris Day song from my youth:
🎵 Qué será, será
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours to see
Qué será, será
What will be, will be. 🎶
If you could influence one major change in the field of pathology, what would it be and why?
I feel that in pathology, like in many other aspects of our daily life, we need to improve our communication skills. We need better communication at all levels. To improve our performance, plan for the future, avoid misunderstanding, and prevent conflicts and possible disasters. Lofty goals, but we must try.
Culminating our insightful interview, we at Biomolecules and Biomedicine express our gratitude to Dr. Ivan Damjanov for generously sharing his knowledge and experiences. His extensive research contributions, impactful educational work, and dedication to advancing the field of pathology have greatly enriched our journal and the broader scientific community. Dr. Damjanov’s distinguished career and active role in academic medicine continue to inspire and benefit medical professionals worldwide.
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