At the regular meeting, the trustees discussed the strategy for the development of educational activities pursuant to the Presidential Order issued by Vladimir Putin on 5 July 2017 and Government Decree #8 of 13 January 2018 on implementing the pilot programme for specialist training in General Medicine at the Almazov Centre from 2018 to 2024.
Among the participants of the meeting were A.D. Beglov, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian President in the Northwest Federal District; S.B. Kalugin, Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media; T.V. Semenova, Director of the Department of Medical Education and Personnel Policy in Healthcare; A.V. Mityanina, Vice Governor of St. Petersburg; V.S. Makarov, Chairman of St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly; M.V. Dubina, Chairman of St. Petersburg Health Committee; members of the Board of Trustees of the Almazov Centre, including prominent figures from science, culture, education and heads of institutions that are members of the Translational Medicine cluster as well as other officials.
In her opening speech, Valentina Matvienko, Speaker of the Russian Federation Council, as the Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Almazov Centre thanked the Director General Evgeny Shlyakhto and his staff for their continuous commitment to the development of the Centre and implementation of their valuable ideas.
As Valentina Matvienko noted, “The Almazov Centre provides a unique platform for high quality training of medical personnel and will accept its first students as early as in September.”
The Almazov Centre will be the pioneer in creating a new type “medical school” with a global reach of biomedical research and medical education. The exceptional medical, diagnostic and technological resources of the Centre's clinics backed up by the expertise of the scientific and academic team will ensure the advanced training of medical personnel to meet the needs of Russian healthcare facilities for the next 10–15 years.
The pilot project will be implemented in accordance with the Federal Law on Education in the Russian Federation. The first experience of launching a basic professional training programme in a scientific institution implies numerous innovations in the educational process to improve its quality.
“The Almazov Centre will provide a fundamentally new training for doctors, where research will be the cornerstone of the programme,” said Professor Shlyakhto. “Science and clinical practice will be an integral part of the educational process because tomorrow’s doctors should be adequately trained in these areas.”
The Centre is expected to implement its own educational standards, use new forms of education, such as virtual reality, online learning and academic mobility of students and teachers with elements of e-learning involving the world’s leading scientific institutions and universities. New educational programmes will focus on the training of highly qualified professionals ready to put into practice the new healthcare paradigms (specifically precision medicine, digital medicine and value-based medicine).
For the successful implementation of the pilot training programme, the Scientific and Educational Centre will be established to bring the training of doctors to a whole new level and help them master the latest methods of diagnosis and treatment, such as molecular genetic diagnostics, gene and cell therapy, computer modeling, virtual surgery, functional surgery and visualization, informatics, biotechnologies, and many more.
Director General of the Almazov Centre, Prof. Evgeny Shlyakhto and Anna Soboleva, head of the Cardiology Department received certificates of merit of the CIS IPA from Valentina Matvienko, Chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council, for their active participation in the activities of the Interparliamentary Assembly and contribution to the friendship between the peoples of the CIS member states.
At the end of the meeting, the officials signed the Memorandum on Cooperation to establish the National Consortium for the Development and Implementation of Digital Technologies in Healthcare (Digital Healthcare Consortium). The Memorandum involves:
- Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation
- Rusatom Healthcare
- Shvabe
- Almazov National Medical Research Centre
- Lomonosov Moscow State University
- St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics
- ElTech SPb
- R-Pharm
The main goal of the Digital Health Consortium is to unite efforts in order to introduce advanced digital health technologies in the Russian Federation, enhance the global competitiveness of Russian companies and create competitive products and services for the digital health markets.
Along with creating the high-tech products and solutions, the parties intend to work out appropriate measures of state support and control over their implementation.
According to the Memorandum, the Russian Ministry of Communications will align the work of the Consortium with the activities carried out by the project management office of the Digital Economy programme. It will also ensure national and international cooperation in process and organizational standardization.