Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy is the continuation of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, which was founded in 1919 at Cluj, as a part of the University of Cluj. The faculty has over 9,000 national and international students, as well as over 850 teachers and researchers. The Romanian health care system has been in existence since 1700. George Emil Palade, the Nobel Prize winner of 1974 in Physiology or Medicine, was born in Iași, in north-eastern Romania, while Nicolae Paulescu, the discoverer of insulin, was born in Bucharest, Romania. During the 1828 plague in Bucharest 21 out of the 26 doctors lost their lives while administering treatment for the disease. After the dramatic political, economical, and social changes that took place in Romanian in 1989, the university has undergone significant changes in its image and organization. The spiritual life has become more dynamic, the logistic support a lot more substantial, and the methods have been improved and modernized. Each member of the teaching staff has benefited by participation in international conventions, trainings in new techniques, in a Western European country or the United States.