Farewell to a scientist, physician, philanthropist, and friend Prof. Vladyslav Povoroznyuk

Prof. Dr. Vladyslav Povoroznyuk (*1954), PhD, Professor for Internal Medicine, rheumatologist at Kiev Medical University, head of the Institute of Gerontology, President of the Ukrainian Association of Osteoporosis, sadly passed away on 12 June 2021after a lengthy period of illness. 

He leaves behind not only a wife and daughter who were the center of his world, but a large number of relatives, staff members, and students who were also like a family to him. His door was always open for them and he did everything in his power to support them. Countless students completed their PhD studies under his guidance, countless colleagues followed what he had to say in lectures and presentations. He was highly influential, not just in Ukraine but in all the successor states of the Soviet Union, and was consequently a frequent visitor to Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. I had the privilege of accompanying him on some of these journeys. Prof. Povoroznyuk influenced osteology in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) like no other; he made it his mission to raise awareness of osteoporosis as widespread disease not just among the scientific, academic community but among all segments of the population. This most recently led his team to conduct mass screenings in the most remote Carpathian villages.

Friendship Vladyslav with Heinrich

He had an especially close relationship to us, to our association, our country Austria; not only through wide-ranging scientific cooperation, but also as a profound connoisseur of the local football scene, who was famed for his legendary bon mot: “There are two things in life for which you don’t need any language, osteoporosis and football.“ For me personally, the collaboration and friendship with Prof. Povoroznyuk was a precious and enriching one, notwithstanding the immensity of the language barrier that separated us. At his side, 1 had the opportunity to hold lectures in all major Ukrainian cities, but also in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, Minsk, and on the Crimea, to meet patients with rare rheumatic disorders, and to exchange knowledge and experiences with local colleagues. Our next destination would have been Almaty. Medicine as if from another world. Whenever we met in the Western world at congresses, we always found time to enjoy each other’s company over dinner or go for lunch, be it in the USA, the United Kingdom, Spain, Athens, Florence, or many other major European cities. Every meeting with him resulted in new projects, and here the cooperation with us was very, very important to him. It all began over dinner in 2009 at a CEE
meeting in Budapest on a Danube ship and with a discussion about Rapid Wien. The last 2 years were sadly dominated by his illness, but he never lost his zest for life nor his capacity for intellectual, critical thinking. 

Friendship Vladyslav with Juraj

I and Vladyslav met for the first time 15 years ago at one of the IOF meetings. Me, wondering about his posters and articles full of new approaches, mostly about vitamin D and bone quality. As a speaker, he attended our annual Bone Academy meeting in Prague dealing with osteoporosis treatment. 

Via Heinrich Resch, we found a private way to our friendship and started closer collaboration resulting in an invitation to one of our Slovak-Czech osteoporosis congress in Žilina (2016), where he became an honorary member of our society. His contribution to the development of osteoporosis awareness in Ukraine led us to award him with the honorary medal of Slovak society for osteoporosis and metabolic bone disorders. It was a pleasure and an honour for me to be a guest twice in Ukraine. For the first time in Lviv, me and my colleagues appreciated not only the outstanding quality of the scientific program (among others including speakers such as prof. J. Kanis, N. Binkley and D. Hans) but also the kind and warm hospitality during our stay. 

For the second time, in 2019, I was invited to attend one of the last meetings he organized in the beautiful city of Kyiv and spent remarkable time with Vladyslav, his wife and daughter. It was the last time we met in person. Vladyslav and his family were invited to our conference last year in Bratislava, but due to COVID-19 precautions it was not possible to arrange their stay in our country. 

In his person, we will miss a great scientist, physician and friend. I feel honored to have the privilege to meet him and become his friend.
Rest in peace dear Vladyslav!
We will miss him!

Prim. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Heinrich Resch¹
Prof. Dr. Juraj Payer, PhD., MPH, FRCP²

1 II. Medizinische Abteilung, Krankenhaus der Barmherzigen Schwestern, Vienna, Austria
2 5th Department of Internal Medicine, Comenius University Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital in Bratislava, Slovakia