WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th January, 2020) A group of US pediatric cardiology specialists from the Cardiac Alliance is planning a series of trips to Russia in 2020 to conduct complex procedures on patients and train local doctors in the cities of Kemerovo and Voronezh, Cardiac Alliance leader Bill Novick told Sputnik.
"We are going to Kemerovo on February 22," Novick said on Monday. "We also continue our program in Voronezh."
The US surgeons planning to make three trips to Kemerovo and two visits to Voronezh, he noted.
Novick, a world renowned pediatric cardiac surgeon, operates on children all over the world, but particularly in developing countries and "hot spots" such as Libya. He is one of the few doctors in the world who performs procedures on babies younger than 30 days.
Novick and his team return to Kemerovo where they completed their first project in Russia several years ago.
"The surgeon that we trained many years ago in Kemerovo left the hospital and took a new job in St. Petersburg. Now we need to go and train another surgeon," Novick said.
The visiting surgeon said they plan to perform between 12 and 15 surgeries during their first trip to Kemerovo and return there in June and October.
"The doctor there now can do simple and moderate level cases, but he has no experience performing complicated levels. We are hoping to train him in complex surgery and newborn surgery," Novick said, adding that his team may teach two surgeons from the local hospital instead of one.
Novick also said the group of surgeons will visit the city of Voronezh later this winter and fall, noting that the local surgeon they trained during previous visits has significantly raised his professional competence.
"Before I used to do about 90 percent of surgeries and he did the other 10 percent. Now he will be doing 90 percent of the surgery, Novick said. "We really improved the capability of the Voronezh team."
The Cardiac Alliance comprises a group of medical specialists who usually work in different "hot spots" around the world. The group has performed surgeries in several Russian cities, including in Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod and Kemerovo.
