On May 24-26, 2023, the annual international scientific-practical conference “Filatov Readings – 2023” will be held, which is registered in the State Non-Commercial Enterprise “Center for Testing the Professional Competence of Specialists with Higher Education in the Fields of “Medicine” and “Pharmacy” under the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” and accredited by EACME. In addition to specialists from Ukrainian regions, leading ophthalmologists from Belgium, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Armenia, Greece, Egypt, Israel, Spain, China, Moldova, Netherlands, Germany, UAE, Poland, Portugal, Romania, USA, Turkey, Hungary, France, Switzerland, and Egypt will also participate.
The reports will discuss modern approaches and methods of diagnostics and treatment of eye diseases using the latest technologies. The scientific-practical conference with international participation “Filatov Readings-2023” is organized by “Ukrainian Society of Ophthalmologists” Public Organization and State Institution “Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy named after A.N. Shupik. The program of the scientific-practical conference is dedicated to the priority problems of ophthalmology: corneal and anterior eye diseases, post-traumatic eye pathology, including combat trauma, cataract surgery, neuro-ophthalmology, ophthalmo-oncology, vitreoretinal pathology, pediatric ophthalmopathology, refractive and accommodation disorders, glaucoma and reconstructive surgery. Thus the scientific-practical conference with international participation “Filatov Readings-2023” will bring together well-known scientists, researchers, practitioners and specialists of related fields in order to exchange experience, expand professional contacts and business relations, which will contribute to the main result of medical science – improvement of public health and prevention of eye diseases.
The speaker Gerrit Melles, MD, PhD (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) will open the conference with a lecture, which is dedicated to Academician V.P. Filatov “How Nature would have seen our cornea win”.
At the “Filatov Readings – 2023” conference, meetings of professional societies will be held: Ukrainian Society of Ophthalmologists, Ukrainian Glaucoma Society, Union of Ukrainian Ophthalmosurgeons, Ukrainian Council of Young Scientists, European Contact Lens Society of Ophthalmologists (ECLSO), Polish Ophthalmological Society “Ophthalmology in the 21st Century” (POS), German Ophthalmological Society DOG, Association of Ophthalmologists of Moldova.
During the plenary and breakout sessions, the Ukrainian and foreign specialists will present their innovative solutions, inventions, improvements in ophthalmology. All the participants will get certificates.
Location: 49/51 French Boulevard, Odessa, State Institution “Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy named after N.P. Filatov. Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy named after V.P. Filatov NAMS of Ukraine.
Contacts:
Phone numbers for inquiries (048) 746-52-08
E-mail: filatovinstitut@ukr.net
State Institution “The Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. V.P. Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine
Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (Odessa, Ukraine) received as humanitarian aid the drug melphalan for the treatment of retinoblastoma, an intraocular malignant tumor in children.
As the Interfax-Ukraine agency was informed at the clinic, the drug is used to treat this tumor with the Institute’s own combined polychemotherapy method which implies injecting the drug directly into the tumor in combination with general polychemotherapy. This method allows to save the eye affected by the tumor and even vision in 80% of cases, including those with retinoblastoma stage 3-4.
The drug used for intraocular injections is melphalan, which is produced by Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited.
“Unfortunately, recently it has been impossible to purchase melphalan for injections in Ukraine. The institute has taken active steps to obtain the drug,” the institute reported.
Obtaining the drug was made possible thanks to the efforts of Olga Nikitchenko, head of the patronage service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ukrainian Ambassador to South Africa Lubov Abravitova, and Stavros Nikolau, senior executive director of Aspen Group, with support from the We Stand with Ukraine Foundation.
“The drug was delivered to the Filatov Institute. And literally the next day the first patient received treatment to save his vision and life,” the clinic reported.
Retinoblastoma is an intraocular highly malignant retinal tumor that develops mainly in children in the first two years of life and accounts for 89.3% to 98.2% of all intraocular neoplasms in children. Retinoblastoma incidence rate in the world is currently 1 case per 10-15 thousands newborns.
Due to asymptomatic course of the disease the majority of children (85-86%) come to the clinics with far advanced stage of retinoblastoma and even up to now many clinics have considered that the only way to save the life of the child was to remove the tumor together with the eye.
Retinoblastoma treatment in Ukraine is carried out at the Department of Pediatric Ophthalmopathology of the Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy named after Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy. V.P.Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of NAMS of Ukraine”. In recent years, the clinic has treated about 300 children with retinoblastoma aged from three months to eight years. One child receives from three to 20 injections, depending on the stage of the disease.
The Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy named after V.P. Filatov (Odesa) received medical devices and medicines as part of the Shelter Ukraine charitable initiative, which is being implemented by SiLab Ukraine, Valores Foundation, Teple Misto charitable organization, Vplyv charitable organization in cooperation with Razom For Ukraine.
The clinic told the Interfax-Ukraine agency thanks to this initiative, the institute, in particular, was able to obtain suture materials, medical devices and medicines.
The received medical devices and consumables are used, among other things, in corneal transplantation operations, said Halyna Drozhzhina, the head of the department of pathology and microsurgery of the cornea of the eye.
“Such interventions are almost always the patient’s last chance not to lose sight, and they can only be done with such tools,” she stressed.
She pointed out that during the COVID-19 pandemic and the start of the war, “people hesitated and turned to ophthalmologists at the wrong time.”
“The number of patients in need of such interventions has increased. Therefore, such assistance is extremely necessary for us, it will help prevent vision loss in dozens of patients from different parts of Ukraine,” she said.
The clinic stressed that during the war, the institute, like in peacetime, continues to provide highly specialized ophthalmological care to patients from all over Ukraine, including citizens who were evacuated from the zone of active hostilities.
The French Quantel medical, with the assistance of the Ukrainian Embassy in France, donated it to the Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy named after Filatov (Odessa) as a humanitarian aid a new probe (sensor) for the Aviso apparatus for ultrasonic biomicroscopy of the anterior eye.
As Interfax-Ukraine was informed at the clinic, up to 5,000 patients need to be examined on the Aviso device annually, in particular, to detect and monitor the state of intraocular tumors and neoplasms of the conjunctiva of the eye.
In addition, the need for probe-assisted examination increases during the war for patients with trauma, foreign bodies in the anterior part of the eye, chemical and thermal burns.
In the spring of this year, the institute had an urgent need for a new sensor, since the existing one actually failed. The sensor for each device is made individually.
During the war, the clinic was not able to update the equipment on its own, in particular, due to funding limitations, the lack of a sensor in Ukraine, disruption of supply chains and delivery difficulties.
“Administration, doctors and patients of the clinic of the Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy named after Filatov wholeheartedly express their gratitude to the General Director of Quantel medical, Mr. Jean-Marc GENDRE / Jean-Marc GENDRE and the company’s employees for the provided humanitarian assistance and the Embassy of Ukraine in France for their invaluable help and support,” the clinic emphasized.
The majority of medical experts, who had fled abroad due to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, have come back and continue to work, practitioners and experts in the sphere of medicine said during a roundtable discussion hosted by the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency on Thursday.
“For the moment, 98% of personnel are in place. Some of them left for western Ukraine or abroad in the first months of the war, however, today almost all of them have come back and continue to work,” Head of the Department of Cardiometabolic Diseases of the Clinic for Adults of the State Institution “Center for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine,” PhD in Medical Sciences Yevhen Marushko said.
“Speaking about the personnel of the Filatov Institute, almost none of our employees left. Some 99% of our personnel stay here. There is a shortage of specialists in very specific profiles as there are few of them all over the country. If specialists, whom we already lack, leave, this has a negative impact on the level of medical assistance,” ophthalmologist of the highest category, head of the department of inflammatory pathologies of the eye and microsurgical treatment of their consequences at state institution “Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine” Oleksandra Zborovska said.
In turn, Business Development Director of ADONIS medical group of companies Svitlana Lonska said that the majority of the personnel of private medical institutions have returned, while those who are abroad also plan to come back soon.
Despite the fact that a maternity hospital was destroyed during large-scale military operations in Kyiv region, the doctors did not suspend their work and had to deliver babies under emergency conditions, she stressed.
At the same time, Head of the Department of Nephrology and Renal Replacement Therapy of the National University of Health Protection, owner of the Nephrology Clinic, Professor Dmytro Ivanov noted that the doctors and senior staff, who have returned to Ukraine, thus proved the level of their reliability.
“In the first two months we lost more than 60% of doctors and around 75% nurses in Kyiv in the first two months. Almost no medical personnel remained in the districts of Ukraine where military operations were conducted. Around 90% of medical staff have returned as of today. I think this could be considered a criteria of reliability of doctors and senior staff, for example, heads of departments and chief doctors,” Ivanov said.
Chief Physician of the National Cancer Institute, PhD in Medical Sciences Andriy Beznosenko said that the patient flow significantly reduced at the National Center Institute in the first month of the war.
“We received 150 patients during the first month of the war, while last year we received 2,700 patients during the same period of time,” he said.
The expert also noted that the specialists of the National Cancer Institute do the utmost to monitor the situation with the oncology centers in the temporarily occupied territories.
“Today, Kherson, Melitopol, Mariupol oncology centers and the one in Krasnyi Luch are under occupation. They lack personnel and there are patients there. But there are no medicines for treatment and we are unable to deliver them,” Beznosenko said.
ADONIS, FILATOV INSTITUTE, ZBOROVSKA, БЕЗНОСЕНКО, ИВАНОВ, МАРУШКО
Ukraine may become the first country to describe in detail civilian medicine during the war, practitioners and experts in the field of medicine expressed this opinion during a round table at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Thursday.
“We can become the first nation to describe civilian medicine in detail during the war. Today there is nothing like it. There is only military medicine in war conditions, these are one-sided NATO and Russian articles,” said Andrey Beznosenko, head physician of the National Cancer Institute.
He noted that there have never been articles, information from a country that systematically analyzes what happened to civilian medicine during the war.
At the same time, Svetlana Lonskaya, business development director of the ADONIS medical group of companies, said that ADONIS has introduced medical field teams for the affected regions.
According to her, a group of two or three narrow specialists is being created who travel to the affected regions and provide free medical advice to those who wish.
She also noted that ADONIS is working on creating a more stable form of stem cells for easier transportation, as they are now transported frozen at a constant low temperature.
Lonskaya predicts that the innovative form of stem cells could be stored as a cream or hydrogel patches.
In turn, the head of the Department of Inflammatory Eye Pathologies and Microsurgical Treatment of Their Consequences of the VP Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine Oleksandra Zborovskaya spoke about the need to create a supra-cluster ophthalmological center.
“The war convinced us of the need to create a supra-cluster ophthalmological center, since it is more profitable for the state to finance even the patient’s travel to the only center in the country where he can receive a closed cycle of ophthalmological care. Telemedicine has not justified our hopes. In ophthalmology, many things cannot be standardized, and methods There are simply no objective diagnostics,” Zborovskaya said.
Head of the Department of Cardiometabolic Diseases of the Clinic for Adults of the State Institution “Center for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” Yevhen Marushko emphasized that the Ukrainian healthcare system has survived and continues to develop.
“Is there any other country in the world where new departments, new programs, new buildings, new directions are opened during the war? Our healthcare system has not only survived, it is developing,” Marushko said.
Кардіодіабет 1 дня
ADONIS, CIVILIAN MEDICINE, FILATOV INSTITUTE, WAR, БЕЗНОСЕНКО, ЗБОРОВСКАЯ, ЛОНСКАЯ, МАРУШКО
