Institute of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology - Forensic Medicine

The beginning of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Prague dates back to one year 1785, when the Chair of Forensic and Police Medicine was established in Prague. Initially, external professors from the same textbooks as at German universities lectured here. He was the first to start lecturing forensic medicine in Czech and also published in the Journal of Czech Physicians in 1864 prof. Eduard von Hofman (1837 - 1897).

When the then Charles-Ferdinand University was divided into Czech and German in 1882, he was appointed extraordinary and in 1886 full professor of forensic medicine at the Czech University in Prague. MUDr. Josef Reinsberg (1844 - 1930), an excellent general practitioner and scientist who worked at the universities of Strasbourg and Heidelberg. For 23 years (1883 - 1908) he was the head of the Institute for Forensic Medicine of the Czech Faculty of Medicine, which was then located in Kateřinská Street. In 1896 prof. Reinsberg was elected dean of the Czech Faculty of Medicine and in 1899 he also became rector of the Czech part of Charles-Ferdinand University. He published a textbook of forensic medicine in four volumes.

In 1908 he was appointed full professor and head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine MUDr. Vladimir Slavik (1866 - 1933). During his tenure, the institute moved to the newly built building of the Main Institute in what was then Preslov, now Studničková, the street where it is located to this day. Prof. Slavík also repeatedly became the dean of the Faculty of Medicine and then also the rector of Charles University.

From 1933 to 1957 he was the head of the institute prof. Frantisek Hajek (1886 - 1962), who wrote, among other things, the most extensive textbook of forensic medicine to date and was also the dean of the Faculty of Medicine.

He succeeded him from 1957 to 1983 prof. MUDr. Jaromir Tesar, DrSc. (1912 - 2004). He has published a number of scientific papers. He enjoyed great recognition for his contribution to justice as a sought-after forensic expert. He was the author of a number of forensic medical writings for doctors and lawyers, of which the works of Forensic Medicine from 1968-1976 are the most extensive.

From 1983 to 1986 he headed the institute MUDr. Jiří Sobotka, whose focus was mainly forensic serology.

From 1986 to 2012 he was the head prof. MUDr. Přemysl Strejc, DrSc., who still works at the institute as a professional consultant and is the chairman of the academic senate of the 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University. In 1999, the institute was merged with the Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Chemistry. The current Institute of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology of the 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and the General University Hospital was established.

From 2012 to 2018 he headed the institute doc. MUDr. Alexander Pilin, CSc. He now works here as a deputy head of the forensic part of the institute.

He currently heads the institute doc. RNDr. Radomír Čabala Dr., which is also the head of the toxicological part of the institute.