Medtronic Opened Office and Training & Education Center in Astana, Kazakhstan
Русская версия/English version
Opened Office and Training & Education Center in Astana, Kazakhstan
On April 9, 2013 the Representative Office of Medtronic B.V. in the Republic of Kazakhstan held the official opening ceremony of its office and training and education center (T&E Center) in Astana.
The Opening started by the press-conference with participation of Slobodan Radumilo, Vice-President, Medtronic Central and East Europe, Gulzhakhan Shamshatova, Head of Medtronic Representative Office in Central Asia and Azerbaijan, Marat Aripov M. D., Head of the Interventional Cardiology Department, National Research Cardiac Surgery Center, and Leila Zhubandykova, President of the Diabetes Association of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
After the press-conference media got an opportunity to see the T&E center where Dr. Aripov demonstrated use of simulator for training of interventional cardiologists. The official opening ceremony was widely covered by the media. On the following link (http://bnews.kz/ru/news/post/132635/) one of the internet publications can be found.
Moreover, Medtronic Representative Office in Kazakhstan organized opening ceremony of the office and T&E Centre in Astana for the heads of the leading cardiology clinics of the country. As a part of the ceremony Mr. Slobodan Radumilo made a presentation on the history of Medtronic development on the global level. And Dr. Sabine Brueckner, Director Academia and Medical Affairs, Medtronic CEE, introduced educational programs and company strategy on specialists training. After that, Cath Lab and Hospital Solution cabinet were demonstrated.
The participants of the opening ceremony and the heads of the country leading clinics, in particular, noted high professional approach that Medtronic demonstrates in training physicians in introducing modern and innovative technologies and wished further success.
International Arrythmology Symposium in Astana
On April 10-11, 2013 for the first time in Kazakhstan the International Symposium “On Actual Problems of Interventional Arrhythmology”, the area of cardiology, which is rapidly developing in XXI century in line with the development of innovative medical technologies, was held. The studies conducted in Kazakhstan during last decade showed that the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in the Republic of Kazakhstan has increased from
1989 by almost 10 times, and by 2008 it reached more than 1,200 cases per 100,000 population. In fact, we may already talk about the epidemic of cardiovascular diseases, which is typical for most countries of the world. And, in spite of the obvious achievements of the national cardiology in recent years, mortality from this group of diseases remains high, and reached the level of 251.9 per 100,000 population in 2012. The problem of treatment of chronic heart failure and atrial fibrillation is also crucial.
Arrhythmology in Kazakhstan has made a great step forward in recent years. Thus, pacemakers implantation rate in the Republic of Kazakhstan increased from 24 per 1 million in 2008 to 70 per 1 million in 2012, the number of centres performing implantations has increased more than 4 times: as of January 2013 in Kazakhstan there are 22 hospitals implant devices for treatment of cardiac rhythm disorders. During implementation of the state program “On development of cardiology and cardiac surgery in Kazakhstan in 2007-2009” adopted by the government by the task of President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, new cardiac surgery centres have been opened in Astana, Aktobe and Karaganda, cardiology centers with arrhythmology departments and Cathlabs in Almaty and Shymkent.
Historically, this is the fourth Symposium, that Medtronic Academia Central and Eastern Europe is organizing in collaboration with the leading clinics from different countries. Previous Symposiums were held in the period of 2009 to 2012 in Saint-Petersburg, Minsk, Kiev, and now, in 2013 in the capital of Kazakhstan – Astana city. It was the first time when master-classes within the Symposium programme were delivered simultaneously on the basis of two leading Kazakhstan clinics: the National Scientific Medical Centre (Astana) and the National Research Cardiac Surgery Centre (Astana).
More than 190 doctors attended the Symposium, including physicians from all regions of Kazakhstan, and also from other countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, Georgia, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. As part of the Symposium a plenary session and four master-classes with live transmission of CRT-D and dual-chamber ICD implantations were conducted. Delivered practical sessions were dedicated to programming of the patients with ICD, CRT, and Echooptimization in patients with CRT.
Leading international experts delivered to physicians a series of lectures on the most actual problems of interventional methods of treatment of chronic heart failure and prevention of sudden cardiac death. Special attention was paid to the modern possibilities and perspectives of atrial fibrillation treatment, diagnosing of syncope and sudden cardiac death.
On first day of Symposium Medtronic Representative Office in Central Asia and Azerbaijan arranged the exhibition where all therapies currently introduced in the region were widely presented.
As the Symposium participants noted, implementation of innovative medical technologies requires from physician constant acquisition of new information and quick implementation of knowledge into clinical practice. In this context, such training events as this Symposium, dedicated to the actual problems of arrhythmology, has a particular importance, as give to physicians an opportunity not only improve their skills, but also to share experience with colleagues from other countries.
Implementation of Endovascular Therapy in Kazakhstan
The aortic aneurysm is a disease with low symptomatic presentation and is among the top ten common causes of deaths in the adult population. Annually 800,000 aortic aneurysm cases are diagnosed worldwide. Of these, 600 000 (75%) cases are abdominal aortic aneurysms and 200 000 (25%) cases are thoracic aortic aneurysms.
In 1969 Dotter proposed the concept of endovascular treatment and the first successful endovascular intervention was performed by Parodi in 1990. This methodology significantly reduced surgical mortality and improved prognosis for these patients. Endovascular intervention in treatment of the aneurysms of the descending thoracic aortic provides reduction of mortality from 11.7% to 2.1%, and in treatment of the abdominal aorta aneurysms - from 4.7% to 1.7%. In addition, the risk of systemic complications and hospital costs are significantly reduced as well.
However, despite the obvious advantages, this therapy is not widely used yet. One of the main factors preventing development of endovascular treatment of aortic aneurysms is, on the one hand, lack of a screening program aimed at revealing of such patients, and on the other hand, low awareness on the availability of this type of treatment and its high technological complexity that requires special training of physicians. During introducing new therapies in daily medical practice Medtronic pays great attention to training of the specialists on appropriate performing of stentgrafts implantations, in order to ensure patient safety and develop surgeon’s self- confidence in performing implantation procedure. Medtronic has rich experience in various levels of educational programs, including training both proctors as well as implanters. Availability of such physicians in the country will improve access of the patients with aortic aneurysms to the highly specialized methods of treatment.
Since 2009 Medtronic has supported 9 master-classes in different clinics of Astana, in the National Research Centre of Surgery named after A.N.Syzganov, Almaty, and Regional Cardiac Surgery Centre, Karaganda. Professor Alexander Belenky, head of vascular radiology department in Rabin Medical Centre (Israel), as one of the leading experts in this area, was a proctor on those training sessions.
The goal of these master-classes is further development of endovascular therapy in the country and at the same time to train a certified specialist, who must pass all the required levels of training. In collaboration with the Republican Scientific Centre for Emergency Care Dr. Viktor Zemlyanskiy, interventional radiology surgeon, attended specially organized training program and became the first specialist in Kazakhstan who received in April 2013 permission for implantation of Medtronic thoracic and abdominal stentgrafts. At the first stage of training, Dr. Zemlyanskiy acted as an assistant of the Prof. Belenky in all surgical interventions during the above mentioned master-classes and then passed one-month clinical internship under Prof. Belenky supervision in Rabin Medical Centre (Israel).
As Viktor Zemlyanskiy has noted: “In the relatively short period of time - since September 2010 - the interventional treatment of patients with aortic aneurysm got a substantial development in our country. Thanks to the contribution of such experts as Prof. A. Belenky, we get an invaluable opportunity to learn and implement modern minimally invasive technologies in our clinical practice. Of course, we are at the very beginning of the process now. There are still a lot of interesting and challenging stages on for further development of both interventional radiology, and endovascular
therapy, in particular. Also there is a lot of work ahead on the improving the care of the patients with recent aortic rupture that certainly will help to save many lives”.
The 4th Congress of Surgeons of the Republic of Kazakhstan was held at the National Research Centre of Surgery named after A.N. Syzganov, on April 15-19, 2013 (http://www.nnch.kz/ru/). More than 500 physicians participated in the Congress, among them - leading specialist from Europe, Israel, South Korea, Turkey, Japan and the former Soviet Union countries, including surgeons from all over Kazakhstan. Over 20 unique surgical procedures were performed during those four days. Within the framework of that congress the contribution of Prof. Alexander Belenky in development of endovascular therapy was highlighted and he was awarded the title “Honorary Professor of the National Research Centre of Surgery named after A.N.Syzganov”.
Next step in the development of endovascular therapy in Kazakhstan includes the activities aimed at improving the revealing of patients with aortic aneurysms. In this regard, the National Research Cardiac Surgery Center plans to launch a pilot project on screening patients with aortic aneurysms, which will contribute to the development of endovascular therapy in Kazakhstan and promote patient access to this method of treatment.
Training Courses of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS) in Astana
JSC “Republican Research Center of Neurosurgery” (RRCN) and the Kazakh Association of Neurosurgeons organized educational courses of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS) in Astana on May 23-25, 2013. It was the first time when such level event was held in the CIS countries. The initiator of organising these courses in Astana – RRCN- is the leading medical institution in the country, where unique neurosurgical operations are performed. The Centre includes 7 clinical and 11para-clinical departments. 93 physicians and 196 nurses work in the clinic. One of the main priorities of the centre is to continuously improve the professional level of its staff (http://neuroclinic.kz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=49&Itemid=54).
EANS courses are traditionally held in Europe for many years. The main purpose of this educational initiative is to provide specialist with the most modern information on the methods of diagnosing and treatment of neurosurgical diseases. During the course on lectures and discussions highly qualified European specialists in neurosurgery share their experience and help the participants to find the optimal solution in specific clinical situations.
Medtronic Representative Office in Central Asia and Azerbaijan is glad for the opportunity to support this initiative, as the general sponsor, and to contribute to professional education of neurosurgeons. As part of this event Medtronic organized an exhibition, where widely presented information on surgical technologies, spinal and neuromodulation therapies.
During EANS course the leading neurosurgeons from different countries such as Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Israel, Russia, Turkey, Japan presented lectures on innovative treatment of wide range of neurosurgical diseases, in particular in neuro-oncology, functional neurosurgery and neurotrauma areas (http://www.astana.kz/ru/modules/material/1091). Organization of such training courses in Astana gives the opportunity to present on the international level the achievements of Kazakhstan specialists, to share experience with foreign colleagues, to start new joint projects and strengthen collaboration in clinical and scientific areas.
The III Congress of Therapists and the V Congress of Cardiologists of the Republic of Kazakhstan were held in Almaty
On June 5 -7, 2013 in Almaty the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Association of Therapists, the Association of Cardiologists of Kazakhstan and the Research Institute of Cardiology and Internal Diseases organized the III Congress of Therapists and V Congress of Cardiologists. Nearly 1,500 specialist attended the event from all regions of the country, including guests from 16 foreign countries.
The main goal of the forum is improvement of internists and cardiologists professional level, sharing experience with national and foreign experts, introduction of innovative technologies in the prevention, diagnosing and treatment of common internal diseases (http://bnews.kz/ru/news/post/143041).
The Congress started with “Ak Zhurek” award ceremony. This Award was nominated by the Association of Cardiologists of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Dr. Sabine Brueckner, Director Academia and Medical Affairs, Medtronic Central and Eastern Europe, was awarded the special “Ak Zhurek” diploma for contribution to the development of the cardiology in Kazakhstan. By this the National Association of Cardiologists wanted to emphasize the important role of Medtronic educational programs and personal contribution of Dr. S. Brueckner in training of specialist in Kazakhstan.
Medtronic Representative Office in Central Asia and Azerbaijan contributed to organization of several workshops at the congress. In the diabetes master-class such topic as insulin pumps therapy in diabetes treatment and blood glucose monitoring for therapy optimization were discussed. More than 70 physicians attended the endocrinology section. Dr. Vera Doniche, the speaker from Slovakia, shared experience in pump therapy use, and role of glucose monitoring systems in diabetes care, and presented possibilities of using of the new sensor - Enlite. Also, the results of the state project on insulin pump therapy in our country were presented.
More than 40 doctors participated in the hypertension section. Presentations made by Prof. V.A. Sulimov (MSMU named after I.M. Sechenov, Moscow) and Prof. M.A. Aripov (NRCSC, Astana) attracted high interest. They covered clinical evidences and criteria for patients selection with the resistant hypertension for renal denervation, which is very important in the work of cardiologists, internists and family physicians. Dr. M.A. Aripov showed one-year follow-up results of patients who had this procedure in the National Research Cardiac Surgery Center.
In the arrhythmology section experts from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and from Kazakhstan leading hospitals shared their experience in current issues of interventional treatment of heart rhythm disorders. More than 100 physicians: internist, cardiologists, family physicians participated in the workshop. Discussion of such important topics as diagnosing and treatment of atrial fibrillation, different aspects of the management of patients with implanted devices, and others were conducted with consideration of the peculiarities of work of the above mentioned specialties.
Representative Office of “Medtronic B.V.”
in the Republic of Kazakhstan
17 Al-Farabi Avenue, Office 801, Block 4B, BC “Nurly-Tau”
Almaty
Kazakhstan
Tel.: +7 (727) 3110580
Fax: +7 (727) 3111530
14 D. Kunayev Str., Office 2/1
Astana
Kazakhstan
Tel.: +7 (7172) 244811
Fax: +7 (7172) 244812