Under wartime conditions, medical companies are implementing services to support communication with patients.
As Anna Shved, Marketing Director of the Dobrobut Medical Network (Kyiv), reported the nurse, among such tools that the nurse is developing is the Dobrobut mobile application. With its help, a patient can make an appointment with the necessary doctor in any medical center of the network, look through the results of tests for examinations, doctors’ consultations, make an appointment for an online appointment and take it through the application, pay for services, and manage their visits, reschedule or cancel them.
In addition, the service makes it possible to upload medical documents received at other medical institutions, as well as to make an appointment not only to see a doctor, but also for tests, ultrasound, CT, MRI, and X-rays, without contacting the contact center.
The medical network is also introducing self-service terminals to get detailed information about a doctor’s visit without going to the reception desk or waiting in line.
In addition, Dobrobut is introducing online consultations through a mobile app.
“Currently, online appointments are open to more than 100 doctors in the network. The advantage is that it is a more secure channel than popular messengers. The physician can view the patient’s medical records needed for the online consultation. Communication between the patient and doctor can take place in chat, via audio or video. Adjustments to the treatment regimen, dramatic changes in health when there is no way to physically get to the doctor are the main reasons to go to the doctor online,” Shved said.
“Dobrobut is also actively using tools such as Viber and Telegram bots for patients unable to call the contact center and communicate with coordinators, for example, when they are overseas.
“In the near future, we plan to expand the functionality of this communication channel and improve its performance. Understanding the customer’s journey and expectations, we want to be where it’s convenient for them to be. Self-service is a modern trend throughout the civilized world, including in medicine. We follow this trend, the more so as the martial law environment makes us react more dynamically to new challenges and adjust to new realities”, – summarized Shved.
In his turn, general director of the CSD LAB medical laboratory (Kyiv) Oleksandr Dudin noted that in laboratory segment, digitalization is, in particular, an obligatory part of quality control and one of the factors that ensure speed of examinations and accuracy of their results.
He said that CSD LAB’s investments in IT development “have reached hundreds of thousands of dollars. The company has developed several of its own IT products, particularly a medical program for the pathomorphology lab.
“Together with Yadro Systems, we created a special program for the pathomorphology lab because there were not even slightly similar products on the market. Our software, SlidePath, helps manage workflows, which is as convenient as possible for the pathologist. And you can watch the specimen at every step,” says Dudin.
The CSD LAB director noted that it is difficult to calculate how much money the company saves through digitalization because digitalization is “about optimizing workflows, ensuring speed of analysis, and accurate reproducibility of results.”
“Our pathomorphology lab has equipment that scans histology slides and allows pathologists from anywhere in the world to examine biomaterial and establish a diagnosis,” he said.
Dudin explained that this innovation was previously used effectively by the company to get advice from international partners and the world’s leading pathologists on complex, unique clinical cases, but since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, CSD LAB has also started actively using the scanner in daily work when pathomorphologists have had to work in different parts of Ukraine.
“The ability to scan histology slides has helped to keep working on studies whose results often determine a healthy future and sometimes even the lives of our clients,” he said.
Dudin said that the process of digitalization requires significant financial investment, but “it is necessary and without the introduction of the latest digital technology, modern laboratory diagnostics is impossible.”
As reported in May 2022, the European Business Association (EBA) Committee on Healthcare stated that one of the components of the post-war reconstruction of the Ukrainian healthcare system should be full digitalization of the system, including accessible telemedicine, electronic medical records and electronic prescriptions.
MEDICAL COMPANIES, PATIENTS, SERVICES, support communication
Ferrexpo CEO Jim North has unexpectedly decided to leave the company after leading it for three years, beginning in 2020.
According to a stock exchange report Tuesday, Jim North announced he is stepping down as CEO and executive director of the company after nine years with the group to pursue other opportunities.
It clarifies that North will step down as CEO after an orderly management transition process beginning June 30, 2023. Ferrexpo announced North’s appointment as acting CEO on May 18, 2020.
North will leave the company’s board of directors following the conclusion of its annual general meeting on May 25, 2023, and will also step down as a director of various group subsidiaries.
“As a result, Resolution No. 10 of the upcoming annual general meeting (which represents a resolution to re-elect Mr. North as a director of the company) will be withdrawn and will not be voted on by shareholders at the annual general meeting,” the press release states.
It is also reported that Lucio Genovese, chairman of the board, will serve as interim executive chairman and will assume leadership of the group beginning July 1, 2023.
In addition, the Board of Directors announced the appointment of Ferrexpo Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Nikolai Kladiev as executive director of the company, effective at the conclusion of the upcoming annual general meeting of shareholders. Kladiev joined Ferrexpo in 2005 and has been a member of the group’s executive committee since 2007. He was appointed CFO of the group in July 2021.
Lucio Genovese thanked North for his significant contributions to Ferrexpo over the past nine years and for his role in guiding and shaping the group’s strategy since he became chief executive in 2020. “Jim was appointed as CEO at a time when we were focused on accelerating growth, leading Ferrexpo’s decarbonization plans and further cultural development within the business. However, given the situation in Ukraine with the ongoing war and uncertain outlook, we have had to slow down our growth programs, and the CEO’s focus inevitably shifts to ensuring business continuity and operational sustainability,” Genovese said.
Earlier, Fiona MacAulay, a non-executive director of Ferrexpo plc, a British mining company with assets in Ukraine, announced her intention to leave the group after the 2023 annual general meeting in connection with her appointment as a non-executive director of Dowlais Group Plc, which has become a public company. Fiona MacAulay is currently a senior independent director and a non-executive director of the company.
Even earlier, Ferrexpo’s independent non-executive director, Ann-Christin Andersen, declined to run for the company’s next board in May 2023. “Independent non-executive director Ann-Christin Andersen has notified the board that she will not run for re-election at the company’s next annual general meeting in May 2023,” Ferrexpo’s annual report reported.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine.
Ferrexpo owns 100% of Yeristovsky GOK LLC, 100% of Poltava GOK PJSC and 99.9% of Belanovsky GOK LLC.
Oil prices are stable in trading on Tuesday after declining the day before on increased fears of declining demand.
The price of July futures for Brent on London’s ICE Futures Exchange stood at $79.27 a barrel by 8:05 a.m. Tuesday, down $0.04 (0.05%) from the close of the previous session. Those contracts fell $1.02 (1.3%) to $79.31 a barrel on Monday.
The price of WTI futures for June oil grew by $0.02 (0.03%) to $75.64 per barrel at electronic trades of New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by that time. The contracts value has decreased by $1.12 (1.5%) to $75.66 per barrel at the end of previous session.
Investors are waiting for the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate again this week, worried that further tightening of monetary policy in the U.S. will trigger a global recession, Market Watch noted.
China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing industry fell to a four-month low of 49.2 points in April from 51.9 points in March, data from China’s State Bureau of Statistics (SBS) showed. The value of the index below 50 points indicates a decline in activity in the sector. PMI in April fell below this mark for the first time since December.
In April Brent has fallen in price by 0.3% and WTI has risen by 1.5%.
The unified registry of missing persons was launched on Tuesday, May 2, the Ministry of Reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine said.
“Starting today, data on missing persons will be entered into the unified register of missing persons. The register was developed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs together with the Commissioner for Missing Persons and other agencies,” the press service of the Ministry of Reintegration said in a statement on Tuesday.
It is noted that the registry will collect and centralize data on missing persons: Full name of the person, place and date of birth, marital status, place of residence, territory where the disappearance occurred, circumstances and time of disappearance, signs of the disappeared.
The registry will also include information on the presence or absence of a court decision to declare a person missing or declared dead, as well as other data used to ensure the registration of persons.
We remind that earlier editors and publishers of major Ukrainian media launched a project to find missing civilians – “Find the loved ones”. The project was designed to search for loved ones during the most difficult days of the war.
The initiator and coordinator of the project “Find your loved ones” is the deputy head of the news agency “Interfax-Ukraine” and publisher of the project Open4Business Maxim Urakin.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has registered in the Verkhovna Rada bills “On extending martial law in Ukraine” and “On extending the period of general mobilization.”
The cards of bills No. 9259 and No. 9260 appeared on the parliament’s website on Monday evening.
The texts of the documents have not yet been made public.
As reported, Golos faction member Yaroslav Zheleznyak indicated that martial law and mobilization in Ukraine will probably be extended for 90 days – from May 19, 2023 to mid-August.
Earlier, on February 7, the Rada extended martial law and general mobilization in Ukraine for another 90 days (from February 19, 2023).
The U.S. administration has announced the cancellation of the requirement for mandatory vaccination against coronavirus for foreign nationals arriving in the country starting May 12.
“We are announcing that the administration will waive the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement for employees of federal agencies, federal contract workers and passengers arriving on international air flights as of May 11,” the White House said in a statement.
The U.S. began requiring foreign nationals entering the country to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 beginning in November 2021. Only certificates of vaccination with vaccines approved by the U.S. health regulator or WHO will be accepted.
In April 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden lifted the national state of emergency imposed in 2020 because of COVID-19.
