Mostar Mostar, in southern Bosnia between the mountains of Herzegovina, is a tourist center with a population estimated at 127,000. It developed as a regional trading center because of its location on the Neretva River. The city’s most famous landmark is the single-span stone Old Bridge, first erected in the sixteenth century. The bridge was destroyed in 1993 by tank fire, but it has been rebuilt using many of the original stones.

Banja Luka Banja Luka, in northwest Bosnia on the river Vrbas, is a government seat and financial center. Although much of the city is modern, its history dates to the Middle Ages, and it boasts large ancient stone fortress ruins. The second-largest city in Bosnia-Herzegovina after Sarajevo, Banja Luka is in the Republika Srpska and has an estimated 230,000 population.

WiRED executive director Gary Selnow traveled to Bosnia for both events. Medical school students, professors, and administrators attended, along with local doctors and the media.

Much of the funding for the centers comes from the Medtronic Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the international medical technology corporation, Medtronic.

Hrvoje Badovinac, country manager for Medtronic’s Adriatic region, was on hand for the MIC’s ribbon cutting at the Medical School of Banja Luka on Oct. 24. And on Oct. 26, Davor Kosovac, regional sales manager for navigation and neurologic technologies, attended the official opening at the Medical School of Mostar.

In addition to the current funding, Medtronic has subsidized much of WiRED’s previous work in the former Yugoslavia.

“WiRED’s humanitarian work fits with the Medtronic Foundation’s mission,” said Badovinac in Banja Luka. “That is why I am so happy to be here with you today, because your project - the WiRED Project – is fully in line with our goals and values: it provides access to health information, and does this through education using modern technology,” Badinovac said.

Selnow spoke on behalf of WiRED, calling the Bosnian medical professionals an example of the “brotherhood of healers who have devoted their lives to improving the health of people they serve.”

“Information has always driven the medical profession, but it does even more so today with advances increasing the options for diagnosis and treatment,” Selnow said in his remarks to the Bosnian physicians and medical students.

 

“The heart of the medical profession has been, and continues to be, a physician's knowledge,” Selnow added. “If this were not so, students wouldn't spend so many years in medical school, and practicing physicians would not have need for Continuing Medical Education,” he said.

Selnow also addressed the collective nature of medical knowledge.

“Collaboration is valuable in all professions, but in medicine, it is especially critical,” he said. “Good doctoring requires good collaboration.”

And he placed WiRED’s work in a larger context.

“Doctors, who help heal bodies, can, we believe, also help heal societies by engaging in discussions and collaborations with their colleagues abroad,” he said.

Selnow had particular thanks for WiRED’s volunteers and board of directors, Medtronic, and the technicians responsible for getting the centers up and running. He singled out Dr. Zgjim Lamani, a doctor from Kosovo, who organized the installations and who has worked with WiRED since he was a medical student.

WiRED has completed numerous projects in the region, setting up both MICs and Community Health Information Centers that provide information to the public as well as medical professionals in Albania, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia.

Its work in the area began in 1999 in Kosovo, just after the war, in collaboration with the Global Technology Corps at the U.S. Department of State.

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