MESSAGE OF THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF TO THE READERS OF THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE BAIKAL MEDICAL JOURNAL. JOURNAL WITH CENTENNIAL HISTORY
Authors:   Irkutsk State Medical University, Malov I.V. 
Published: December 2022

The history of the publication of a medical journal is closely connected with the life of the medical community of the Irkutsk province and began long before the establishment of Irkutsk State University. In 1858, a Circle of Doctors was created, on the basis of which, on June 26, 1863, the Society of Doctors of Eastern Siberia was created. Initiative of Irkutsk doctors G.I. Weirich, K.V. Kinasta, N.A. Belogolovoy was officially enshrined by the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire, with the approval of the Charter of the Society. The "Society of Doctors of Eastern Siberia" was in dire need of an exchange of experience and an increase in professionalism. This required a publication that would meet the professional needs of physicians. So since 1863, the Society of Doctors of Eastern Siberia in Irkutsk began to publish the Protocols of the Society of Doctors of Eastern Siberia. The publication gained great popularity among members of the Society, and other professional medical communities became interested in it. The publication was published in a circulation of 50-100 copies, had appendices. Over the years of its existence, more than 50 issues have been published. After the opening of the medical department of Irkutsk University on August 26, 1919, and by the time of the separation of the medical faculty in January 1920, the professional needs of the medical community increased significantly. Of course, organizational work occupied the first years, and complete isolation from the center of our country did not contribute to scientific research, and after that, publishing activity was also hampered. However, without the exchange of scientific opinions, the development of medical science is impossible. Therefore, already in 1921, a group of members of the Faculty of Medicine took the initiative to create a Scientific and Medical Society. The initiative was supported and on November 15, 1921, the university board approved the charter of the new professional society of doctors. The newly created society set the next task of organizing its own printed organ. And in 1923, the publication of the Irkutsk Medical Journal began. The journal was published in the absence of any funding, but its quality corresponded to serious professional publications. The journal presented the work of students, residents, practitioners, graduate students and members of the faculty of the institute. It published clinical observations, new methods of research and treatment. The journal regularly published articles by foreign authors from the USA, France, Japan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Germany, and the Czech Republic. In 2019, due to changes in legislation, the Siberian Medical Journal was forced to suspend its activities in the previous format. In 2022, after major transformations and a change in the composition of the founders, the journal was re-registered as the Baikal Medical Journal. The journal was founded by the Irkutsk State Medical University and the Irkutsk Scientific Center for Surgery and Traumatology. Professor I.V. Malov, and the composition of the editorial board and the editorial board was significantly updated. Thus, a new page was opened in the history of the leading medical publication in Siberia, whose history in 2023 will be 100 years old.