Abstract
The article deals with topical issues of medical lexicography and encyclopedic studies. In particular, based on a review of Ukrainian (Ukrainian-language) specialized medical dictionaries and encyclopedias published in different years, starting from the end of the 19th century, the authors conclude that currently, no such reference work meets the expectations of modern readers and does not provide them with proper contemporary knowledge. In other words, for some reason, printed medical reference literature may not (rapid obsoleting of information, inaccessibility of sources, often inconsistency of terminology, its incompleteness) actively fulfill its reference function in contemporary society. Noteworthy that in Ukraine, where several academic medical institutes and specialized institutions of higher education operate, many medical dictionaries have been published for more than a century, including encyclopedic dictionaries, but no academic complete (multi-volume) encyclopedia on medicine has ever been compiled. The authors justify the need to create an extensive contemporary medical dictionary and encyclopedic resource, which would serve as a corpus of medical terms in Ukrainian and contain interesting and relevant knowledge in medicine, including descriptions of diseases, means and methods of treatment, as well as information on the history of medical science, its branches; provide information on prominent representatives of the medical field, leading medical centers of the country, medical education institutions, etc., the general contribution of Ukrainian medicine to the global medicine. Such a resource would be helpful both for specialists and the public, would be actively used in the professional activities of medical professionals and the education of students, and would generally contribute to the dissemination of quality medical knowledge in Ukrainian society.