Sharing expertise with Ukraine
Ukraine has challenges similar to Canada’s, and some that are particularly its own. Like Canada, Ukraine is a big country. Patients sometimes have to travel great distances to receive specialist services, or complex surgeries. (For example, it’s 540 km between Kyiv, the capital, and Lviv, a secondary city. That’s even farther than Toronto to Montréal.) A key objective of the Ukraine Paediatric Fellowship Program is to increase capacity overall in Ukraine by spreading expertise throughout the country. This has happened. Over the last three years, thanks to training provided through the Ukraine Paediatric Fellowship Program (UPFP) at SickKids, there’s been a 15% increase in consultations involving children with neurosurgical pathology in the Lviv region. Previously, they would have had to travel to Kyiv, or out of country.A challenge that’s particular to Ukraine is shifting the health care system from the inherited, rigid Soviet model to a modern, networked model. Ukrainian physicians who’ve come to SickKids emphasize again and again that the collaborative paediatric health care delivery model they’ve observed at SickKids is one of the most important lessons they take home.
"Since Jim’s first visit, we have operated on 35 children with epilepsy."
That’s the effect of the UPFP on a national and systemic level. But since 2013, when the UPFP began, it’s had the most effect in the operating room. A total of 16 physicians and scientists have come to SickKids to observe and train (with another five more expected this year). SickKids Neurosurgeon Dr. Jim Rutka has shared techniques in both locales. Says participating fellow Dr. Kostiantyn Kostiuk of Kyiv’s Romodanov Institute of Neurosurgery, “Since Jim’s first visit, we have operated on 35 children with epilepsy. Thanks to collaboration, we have implemented modern neurosurgical interventions in the epilepsy surgery field.” Improved technique is one side of the equation. But the collaborative approach Dr. Kostiuk mentions – learned at SickKids, where neurosurgeons work with, for example, radiologists and oncologists on a particular case as a team – is the other, and it’s just as significant.
The UPFP itself is a broader collaborative endeavour – between the Ukrainian community and SickKids – which would not be possible without Dr. Myroslava Romach, who was appointed International Medical Director of the UPFP in 2013, and acts as principal contact between Ukrainian fellows and SickKids staff.
Our goal – building a $3 million endowment to sustain the Fellowship – has been achieved. This would not have happened without our partners and donors, including Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. Donors do make the difference – the Fellowship got its start thanks to an estate donor to CCCF.
