How new technologies and equipment in medicine save lives?

Online medicine as a solution

The development of telemedicine is one of these solutions that came in particularly handy during the pandemic. Through it, remote assistance is provided not only in the republic, but also abroad. Technologies give the opportunity to conduct an online examination, consultation, make a diagnosis and determine treatment. The telemedicine service works around the clock, and this is especially important for specialists in the districts. Conditionally, when only one doctor, obstetrician or paramedic on duty can help a patient in a remote locality, the specialist can quickly contact his colleagues to jointly decipher the tests and prescribe treatment.

The creation and implementation of an automated information management system for ambulance and disaster medicine is carried out under the national project Healthcare. By 2023, this work in the republic should result in the centralised system “Telemedicine consultations”.

Both for elderly and for children

Within the framework of the same national project, the republic continues to update the material and technical base, supply hospitals with equipment for neurosurgeons, vascular surgeons, traumatologists and other specialists. The amount of funding is estimated in the hundreds of millions of rubles.

What is important, changes are also taking place in the sphere of providing assistance to the most vulnerable categories of citizens — pensioners. For example, in Kazan, the geriatric centre received modern equipment for operations and rehabilitation last year.

Equipment modernization in Tatarstan affects not only the capital of the republic. In Naberezhnye Chelny, for example, at the end of 2019, the Kama Children's Medical Centre received a new digital x-ray diagnostic complex RENEX-RC.

Digital technology helps to get a high-quality diagnostic image on the computer screen instantly during the research process. This gives the opportunity for rapid diagnostics, which is especially important in the conditions of the hospital's emergency and trauma departments. On average, about 10,000 children are diagnosed with this device every year.

KFU to help

The Kazan Federal University joined this work in 2018 to make new technologies in medicine more accessible and help more effective. At that time, the Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology created the Scientific and Clinical Centre for Precision and Regenerative Medicine. Three areas have become priorities in his work: oncology, regenerative medicine and surgery, and neurorehabilitation. The main focus is on early diagnosis, individual selection of medications, evaluation of treatment effectiveness and prevention of diseases and their relapses.

In two years, the centre has created the first integrated operating room in the Volga Federal District, which provides minimally invasive endoscopic operations in ultra-high-resolution 4K video format with 3D function. Complex formulations hide operations with minimal intervention, after which there are no large scars, and rehabilitation takes place in a short time.

Combining high-tech surgery with regenerative medicine approaches works to reduce postoperative recovery and improve the effectiveness of treatment. The latter involves the introduction of gene and cell therapy methods. The solution is developed on the basis of our own cell technology center and biobank. As a result, the use of innovative methods not only stimulates regeneration but also helps restore the nervous system, musculoskeletal system, blood supply in ischemic lesions and trophic ulcers.

To fight cancer, the centre offers a full range of services for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The use of multi-mix technologies based on the sciences that study the structure of the genome and the implementation of the information encoded in it has become the most advanced in this work. These data are important for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. It is important that you can use the services of the the centre both free of charge within the framework of scientific and clinical research, and on a commercial basis and under VMI.

Another area of work at the center is dedicated to the fight against coronavirus. But this is worth telling in a separate article.

Tatarstan in search of technologies

Modernization of the healthcare system in Tatarstan has been going on for 10 years. Over this time, billions of rubles have been invested in infrastructure, but the republic still has a lot to do to ensure that medical care is provided to residents quickly and efficiently.

If we talk about the introduction of new technologies, solutions at the level of the government of the Republic of Tatarstan are designed to help their development. Such, for example, was the opening of the medical industrial park Pharmedpolis with a total area of 36,000 square metres on the territory of the Kazan Expo exhibition centre. The centre is engaged in the development of the national medical industry, commercialisation of new technologies in healthcare.

Investments of the largest companies in Tatarstan play an important role in the development of the system. Thanks to them, for example, more than 220 million rubles were invested in the overhaul and re-equipment of the polyclinic No. 1 at Nizhnekamskneftekhim. These funds were used to purchase the latest medical equipment: the universal digital x-ray system Examion, GE Logic S7 ultrasound devices of expert class, IT equipment — hardware, software and intelligent software, and much more.