Review of Biographical Lexicon of Public Health by Izet Masic, 410 pages ,2015
AVICENA, Sarajevo (ISBN 978-9958-720-60-4)

At the occasion of the 70th Anniversary of the publication of “Medical Archives”, its 
readers should be informed of the availability of a new book by its prolific Editor 
Professor Izet Masic. He just published the first biographical lexicon in the field of 
Public Health. It includes about 750 names in alphabetical order. This work is an 
original contribution to the history and to the state of the art in Public Health. It 
describes the life and work of prominent contributors to the wide field of population 
based health improvement, disease prevention and community care. These biographies
cover all five continents with personal stories about the development of public health 
in 50 nations and through international cooperation.

The main usefulness of this work is to provide a large set of references to professionals
all over the world. In addition, Professor Masic wrote in his book a comprehensive 
Preface that clarifies the meaning of the terms Lexicon and Biography. He also 
described historical milestones in the concepts of Social Medicine, Statistical Analysis,
Epidemiologic Studies, Communicable Diseases Prevention, Chronic Diseases 
Epidemiology, Health Services Organization, Health Economics, Medical Record 
Linkage, Health Informatics, Quality of Care Indicators, Health Policies, Social 
Coverage, Risks Factors Intervention Trials, as well as key-role players in the former 
years for the advances in these various areas. The specific contribution of South East 
European countries is particularly well described. It adds knowledge for the public 
health scientists from other European countries and from other continents.

As underlined by the author, this Lexicon might require a constant updating. Even if 
this First Edition contains worldwide biographies of a very large number of developers
for many aspects of Public Health, some names might be missing and could be added 
in a Second Edition. Another point that might be taken into account is a more 
standardized presentation of some biographies. It is not always possible to obtain 
enough information on date of birth, nationality and the original character of the 
contribution of each person listed. 

Finally, after closing the book, I wondered if we could not have a dream for a longer 
term future edition: to obtain an index of the specific areas of Public Health in which 
each name listed in the Lexicon has mainly contributed. This might remain a dream, 
because requiring an enormous work.
Such a suggestion only indicates that this publication is an important input to the not 
always well understood and regularly renewing field of Public Health. Izet Masic 
gives to his readers not only information that was missing. He stimulates his readers to
help him to go further in his way.

Francis ROGER FRANCE, MD, MS, PhD
Professor Emeritus of the University of Louvain, Belgium