The National Healthcare Project. Battling Non-communicable Diseases in Action

Oncology makes up for roughly 80% of the whole National Healthcare Project — David Melik-Guseinov, Director, Project Department, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

It took [other] countries 60–70 years to come all this way. We have a totally different task. We have a clear instruction from the President of the Russian Federation to level off. This is an ambitios objective: 185 fatalities [from oncological diseases] per 100 thousand people — Andrey Kaprin, Director, National Medical Research Radiological Centre of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

The biggest objective is to introduce P4 [the concept based on the four principles – Predictive, Preventive, Personalized and Participatory, – Ed.]. in Russian regions — Andrey Kaprin, Director, National Medical Research Radiological Centre of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

The innovation cycle in any field – especially in medicine – is speeding up. The management’s task is to adapt to the speed of the ongoing change — Evgeniy Shlyakhto, Director General, Almazov National Medical Research Centre; President, All-Russian Non-Governmental Organization "Russian Society of Cardiology.

The number of patients with congestive heart failure will be growing, and we need to address what awaits us in the future. We will be getting patients with more severe conditions – the longevity is on the rise — Evgeniy Shlyakhto, Director General, Almazov National Medical Research Centre; President, All-Russian Non-Governmental Organization "Russian Society of Cardiology.

We are talking about [higher longevity up to, – Ed.] 80+. There will be a lot more patients with cancers. How many of these patients will we be able to save despite their vascular diseases? What do we need to do to build up on our services to prepare them for elderly patients with cancers? We need to have an understanding for making the calculations, while aligning all these services — Andrey Kaprin, Director, National Medical Research Radiological Centre of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

With higher life expectancy, we see how the healthcare model needs to change: we need to go from treating various diseases to multipurpose medical assistance for whole communities — Ruslan Khalfin, President, MAKS-M; Director, Higher School of Healthcare Management, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

Many companies – including big ones – refuse: they are not ready for such a cash receipt procedure. They are unable to overhaul their supply system to provide us with [additional] medications — Andrey Kaprin, Director, National Medical Research Radiological Centre of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

In terms of resources, we are behind other countries by a large margin — Nelli Naigovzina, Depurty Head, Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation.

We do not have enough highly competent and well-educated human resources, because oncology is a truly global field of expertise — Igor Khatkov, Chief Non-Staff Specialist Oncologist, Moscow City Healthcare Department.

We have regions with a total population of less than 1 million people. When it comes to healthcare, spatial development of these regions must factor in challenges in resource availability, challenges and complications related to human resources. At the initial stage, we can create support medical organizations in federal districts that would accumulate all the cutting-edge technologies — Nelli Naigovzina, Depurty Head, Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation.

A region should always have a multidisciplinary team: economists, medical and healthcare professionals that are absolutely essential for operation of today’s medicine — Vitaliy Omelyanovskiy, General Director, Center for Healthcare Quality Assessment and Control of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

The ‘Medicine of the Future’ centre of innovative training programmes should become some sort of a backbone that will bring assistance to patients. What should a centre of innovative training programmes look like? It can be a cross-disciplinary point with cutting-edge equipment established at a multidisciplinary hospital. It should have a full range of equipment — Andrey Kaprin, Director, National Medical Research Radiological Centre of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

There is a new discipline called cardio-oncology. It would be great if Russia started cardio-oncology. There are areas where cancers and cardiovascular [diseases] cross paths. There millions of such patients just in our country. A well-organized cardio-oncology service will help both cardiologists and oncologists plan treatment protocols — Simon Matskeplishvili, Deputy Scientific Director, Lomonosov Moscow State University Clinic; Member of the Board, Russian Society of Cardiology; Cardiologist; Member, Russian Academy of Sciences.