Role and place of maritime medicine

The article considers the role and place of maritime medicine as science, as a separate health care industry and as the academic discipline. Maritime medicine is at the crossroads of 2 vast areas of human knowledge – medicine and oceanology. As medical science, maritime medicine explores the impact of Ocean on human health in order to develop means and methods of preserving the Earth’s human potential, first of all, the one of maritime industry and coastal territories. Maritime medicine includes a set of private medical sciences, such as marine hygiene, marine epidemiology, medicine for ships, diving medicine, naval medicine, marine ergonomics, marine physiology and pathophysiology, marine therapy, marine surgery, marine toxicology, marine pharmacy, history of marine medicine, marine health care organizations and some other disciplines. The article discusses the relationship of maritime medicine with other fields of knowledge, sciences and academic disciplines.