Internal Medicine IV (CFR)

The IV Internal Medicine hospital department started on 1 October 1963, when the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, extended its teaching hospitals by turning the department of internal medicine of the Timisoara Railways Hospital into a Teaching Hospital.  The medical staff was initially transferred from staff belonging to other teaching hospital departments, and subsequently by hiring and developing their own academic teaching staff by competition.

The first head of department was Assoc. Prof.  Leon Berinde, M. D., Ph. D., later promoted to full professor. Between 1984 – 1992 the IV Department of Internal Medicine was coordinated by Prof. Traian Banciu, M. D., Ph. D., followed by Prof. Ioan Romoşan, M. D., Ph. D. between 1993 – 2022, Assoc. Prof. Daniela Lazăr, M. D., Ph. D. between 2022 – 2023, and Assoc. Prof. Christian Banciu from 2023 to date.

Since the beginning until 1993 the department offered courses of medical semiology to students of the faculties of medicine, pediatrics and dentistry. Lately, the IV Department of Internal Medicine has been offering training in medical semiology and internal medicine, in Romanian and in English, to the students of the Faculty of Dental Medicine. The department also offers courses of internal medicine to the students of nursing (general nursing), physical therapy nursing and dental hygienists.

The teaching activity focused on offering students a thorough practical training based on comprehensive theoretical knowledge which might help future physicians face any professional challenges. Due to the fact that for the last 30 years the activity of our teaching hospital was centered mainly on the students of the Faculty of Dental Medicine,  (second year students – medical semiology, third year students – internal medicine), our teaching staff, with the help of the nursing staff, strived to combine the fundamental notions of internal medicine with the specific characteristics of dentistry, which will help dental surgeons recognize common medical problems arising in the dental surgery, make the proper decision in various day-to-day emergency situations, as well as in special medical – dental borderline situations.  All our students, either from the Faculty of Dental Medicine or from our nursing specialties, are being prepared in order to be able to face the challenges occurring in internal medicine, to identify various disorders and to recommend the most effective treatment.

The training offered by the IV Department of Internal Medicine is not limited only to undergraduate students, being extended also to postgraduate students enrolled in a 5-year internal medicine residency program. Our teaching staff coordinates graduation thesis and a large number of postgraduate lectures. As a teaching hospital which has always dealt with aspects belonging both to internal medicine and to dental medicine, our activity has always been characterized by a multi-disciplinary approach towards the medical activity.

Our patient-centered healthcare also entails a top medical activity (both from the teaching point of view, and from that of patient care and scientific research), in parallel with a permanent training of our staff which in recent year made possible the creation of several specialized sub-departments: cardiology, gastroenterology and hepatology, rheumatology, nutrition and metabolic diseases.  The department also has several functional exploration laboratories: endoscopic (diagnostic and therapeutic procedures), cardiovascular, rheumatology (capillaroscopy), complex echocardiographic exams (cardiac, vascular, abdominal, soft tissue, breast, thyroid, contrast ultrasound, echoendoscopy, interventional ultrasound), hepatic elastography (Fibroscan). In order to ensure a highly specialized and thorough healthcare our department cooperates with all the other departments and outpatient center of our hospital : the III Surgical Department, ICU, ophthalmology, ENT, neurology (integrant part of the internal medicine department), urology and gynecology (parts of the surgery department), radiology and imaging (including state-of-the art CT), the outpatient centers of pneumology, dermatology, nosocomial infections, psychiatry, psychology, and last but not least a very well equipped clinical laboratory (including PCR testing), which all function within the Timisoara Railways Hospital.

The IV Department of Internal Medicine has 75 beds, ensuring qualified healthcare to all the patients of Timisoara and neighboring counties who have a valid medical insurance. It actively monitors the main chronic disorders and also has a sustained activity in the prevention, early diagnosis and elimination of risk factors in all the top medical fields for which it is qualified (gastroenterology/hepatology, cardiology, rheumatic and collagen disorders).

Scientific research has been a constant concern of our staff, concretized in scientific papers covering a wide area of interests, presented at various national and international scientific events or published in national and international ISI, BDI+, and BDI journals. The teaching staff of the department have also published several books, monographs and textbooks.