Wielkopolska – region roots of Polish rheumatology

We describe the role of doctors from the Wielkopolska region in organizing health care and developing scientific research connected with rheumatology at the beginning of the 1930s. The most important event of that time was the 1st Polish Congress on Researching and Fighting Rheumatism, which took place in Inowrocław in 1930. Its participants were numerous representatives of the medical faculty of Poznań University and doctors from all over the Wielkopolska region. The diary was published in Medical News, edited in Poznań. The National Health Security Council then founded a hospital for rheumatic patients in Inowrocław, in 1930. The man who rendered considerable services for the establishment of rheumatology in Wielkopolska was Professor Franciszek Raszeja. He and Professor Wincenty Jezierski opened the first rheumatology outpatient clinic in Poznań (one of the three existing then in Poland). F. Raszeja was also one of the founder members of the Polish Society Against Rheumatism and finally became its vice-president and a delegate for the International League Against Rheumatism (ILAR). His scientific works about pathogenetic, clinical and therapeutic aspects of rheumatic diseases were extremely innovative. F. Raszeja must be considered the pioneer of rheumatology in Wielkopolska.