Background
Smoljanovic, Tomislav was born on July 15, 1977 in Split, Croatia. Son of Mladen and Ankica Smoljanovic.
Smoljanovic, Tomislav was born on July 15, 1977 in Split, Croatia. Son of Mladen and Ankica Smoljanovic.
Doctor of Medicine, Zagreb University, 2002.
As a physician, he gained public prominence in 2011 for his research that uncovered the harmful side effects of bone morphogenetic protein 2 therapy. He took up rowing in 1989, but had to leave it due to bad grades in school, and returned to the sport only in 1993. Smoljanović moved from HVK Gusar to Zagreb-based HAVK Mladost rowing club in 1999, after enrolling in the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb.
His teammates were Igor Boraska, Nikša Skelin, Siniša Skelin, Branimir Vujević, Krešimir Čuljak, Tihomir Franković and Igor Francetić, with Silvijo Petriško as coxswain.
Smoljanović retired from competitive rowing in 2003. After earning his Doctor of Medicine degree in 2002, Smoljanović worked as a physician at the Department of Orthopaedics of the University Hospital Centre in Zagreb.
In 2006, while examining the available literature on bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2), used to stimulate bone growth in spinal fusion procedures, Smoljanović and his colleagues discovered that BMP-2 therapy had major side effects that were being ignored by most studies. The most serious complication was retrograde ejaculation, which caused temporary or even permanent sterility in mentor
Smoljanović started to write letters to editors of medical journals, pointing to deficiencies in papers on the BMP-2 therapy, but both the letters and Smoljanović"s review article on the topic were rejected for publication.
Nevertheless, he remained unconvinced, feeling that his concerns were not met with valid counterarguments. After finding out that most editorial boards of rejecting journals had at least one member with financial ties to Medtronic, a major producer of BMP-2-based products, Smoljanović and his colleagues took the "guerrilla science approach", writing more than 35 letters to medical journals. Smoljanović"s complaints finally caught the attention of Stanford researchers, whose 2011 study ultimately found that the incidence of harmful side effects was 10 to 50 times higher than previously reported, and criticized the earlier industry-sponsored studies for "biased and corrupted research".
In 2011, the United States Senate and Department of Justice started investigations of Medtronic over the omissions of safety problems from clinical trials data.
In 2013, the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport named him among top twenty junior researchers in the country.
Member medical commission Croatian Rowing Federation, 2003—2008. Chairman medical commission Zagreb Rowing Federation, 2003—2008. Member executive board Academic Rowing Club Mladost, 2006—2008.
Member of Association Croatian Orthopaedics Surgeons (associate), Croatian Medical Association (associate Sports Acknowledgement award 2000).
Married Anica Smoljanovic, December 7, 2002. Children: Marin, Petra.