Arkady Viktorovich Leonov (born July 25, 1952) is a hygienist, Candidate of Medical Sciences, and associate professor; head of the Department of Child and Adolescent Hygiene and Nutritional Hygiene at the Nizhny Novgorod Medical Academy, and twice — in 1996–2000 and 2002–2013 — dean of its Pediatric and Medical-Preventive faculties [1]. He is one of the authors of the centile standards for children's physical development that pediatricians in the city and Region have used since 1980 [2].
Sanitary physician
Leonov defended his candidate's dissertation, "Hygienic Justification of the Educational Schedule in Speech Therapy Groups of Kindergartens," in Moscow in 1987; his academic supervisor was Professor Nina Matveyeva, who headed the Department of General Hygiene and Ecology [2].
From 1997 to 2004 he headed the multidisciplinary Department of Hygiene of the academy's Medical-Preventive Faculty, and later the Department of Child and Adolescent Hygiene and Nutritional Hygiene [1][2].
His area of focus is medical-ecological monitoring of children's health in varying living and learning environments, and health-preserving technologies in new forms of education [1].
The standards by which Nizhny Novgorod children are measured
Since the early 1990s the department has conducted health monitoring of the population under varying ecological-hygienic risk conditions; the work proceeded in collaboration between the Department of General Hygiene and Ecology, the Department of Child and Adolescent Hygiene and Nutritional Hygiene where Leonov worked, and the Department of Pediatric Diseases [2].
Since 1980, pediatricians in the city and Region have used periodically updated centile standards for physical development and functional reserves of urban and rural children, developed at the academy. Among their authors are N. A. Matveyeva, Leonov, E. S. Bogomolova, Yu. G. Kuzmichev, N. G. Chekalova, and L. V. Nazarova [2].
By the early twenty-first century, the team of hygienists and pediatricians had accumulated data on the health and living environment of more than twenty thousand children and adolescents — the result of surveys conducted under a unified program in 1980, 1991–1992, 2001–2002, and 2011 [2]. Leonov published the findings of the monitoring of Nizhny Novgorod schoolchildren jointly with Ye. S. Bogomolova, S. A. and N. G. Chekalov, and Yu. G. Kuzmichev [3].
This work gave rise to methodological guidelines for physicians and teaching manuals approved at the federal level: "Organization of Therapeutic and Preventive Nutrition for Children in Preschool Institutions" (1999), "Determining the Level of Sanitary-Hygienic Well-Being and the Risk of Increased Morbidity among Children in Preschool Institutions" (2000), "Determining the Sanitary-Hygienic Well-Being of General Education Institutions" (2004), "Assessment of Physical Development of Children and Adolescents" (2006), and "Functional Reserves of the Body of Children and Adolescents" (2010) [2].
Dean
The Pediatric Faculty was established in 1931 on the basis of the Institute for the Protection of Motherhood and Infancy; its first dean was Professor Fyodor Agafonov [1].
Leonov headed the Pediatric and Medical-Preventive Faculties twice — from 1996 to 2000 and from 2002 to 2013, with an interim period during which Professor Viktor Safronov served as dean [1]. After him, the faculty was led by Professor Irina Stelnikova, and from 2018 by Associate Professor Andrey Zheleznov [1].
Today the faculty enrolls more than eight hundred students and graduates more than one hundred and ten pediatricians annually [1].
| Years | Dean |
|---|---|
| 1959–1976 | Igor Belyaev |
| 1976–1986 | Aleksandr Greten |
| from 1988 | Anatoly Khrenov |
| 1993–1996 | Viktor Fokin |
| 1996–2000 | Arkady Leonov |
| 2000–2002 | Viktor Safronov |
| 2002–2013 | Arkady Leonov |
| 2013–2018 | Irina Stelnikova |
| from 2018 | Andrey Zheleznov |
A department that no longer exists as a separate entity
In 2013, the Department of General Hygiene and Ecology and the Department of Children's and Adolescents' Hygiene and Nutritional Hygiene were merged. The current Department of Hygiene is headed by Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Elena Bogomolova [2].
Five years later, the institution's name also changed: by order of the Russian Minister of Health dated February 8, 2018, the medical academy was reorganized into the Privolzhsky Research Medical University, which was joined by the Privolzhsky Federal Medical Research Center — thus the city acquired its first university clinic with approximately five hundred beds [4].
In the university's current list of departments, there is no separate Department of Children's and Adolescents' Hygiene — there is a Department of Hygiene [5].
Sources
- nizhgma.ru — PIMU — Pediatric Faculty: history, deans, including A. V. Leonov in 1996–2000 and 2002–2013 (archive)
- pimunn.ru — PIMU — Department of Hygiene: history, headed by A. V. Leonov in 1997 (archive)
- cyberleninka.ru — CyberLeninka — Bogomolova E. S., Leonov A. V., Chekalova S. A., Chekalova N. G., Kuzmichev Yu. G. Results of health monitoring of schoolchildren in Nizhny Novgorod, 2007 (archive)
- Kommersant (Privolzhye) — Nizhny Novgorod — Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy renamed: order of the Minister of Health dated February 8, 2018 (archive)
- pimunn.ru — PIMU — University departments: list of current departments, including the Department of Hygiene (archive)