The USA-Ukraine Med Exchanges 2024
With the generous support of our donors, hosts, and partners, the Peace and Development Foundation made a long-term and life-changing impact on many people in the last 12 months.
In 2024 we continued to educate, encourage and equip Ukrainian physicians with the modern leadership and professional skills to help them sustain and develop medical care during the war.
We also raised awareness about the brutal Russian invasion and advocated for the U.S. medical community to continue providing support for Ukraine.
A group of cardiac surgeons and anesthesiologists from Cherkassy in Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
In 2024 we organized 7 medical exchange projects that brought 33 Ukrainian doctors and researchers, also one paramedic, to 14 U.S. medical institutions and four conferences (AACR, ASCO, WLCL, ASH). Each group spent two-three weeks in the U.S. and another 4-5 days on the road to achieve the destination and return home.
Medical centers of Ascension, Johns Hopkins, HCA Kingwood, LCRC, Loyola Chicago, MD Anderson, OHC, NIH Clinical Center, Stanford University, Thomas Jefferson, Tulane University, UPenn, Tilman Fertitta College of Medicine, Vanderbilt University kindly welcomed Ukrainians selected by the Ministry of Health and patient organizations.
The primary goal was to connect Ukrainians with the top medical experts in the United States. Ukrainian doctors were able to shadow American colleagues to learn modern healthcare advances, to acquire new life-saving medical practices and to establish long-term professional collaborations.
They also had a unique chance to experience local culture and traditions through informal gatherings at homes, restaurants, museums, cultural centers, and churches.
For their part, Ukrainian physicians shared with U.S. colleagues, their families and friends their stories of how the war has impacted them personally, their families, patients, colleagues, and the whole country. This way American people could learn firsthand why it is important to continue supporting Ukraine’s fight for life and freedom.
As described in the report for 2022-2023 and the first blog post, our Program is inspired by the successful exchanges that Dr. Ronald Hoekstra organized for Ukrainian neonatology doctors and nurses in 2005-2015.
In December 2022 on the invitation of Senator Bill Frist, MD, eight Ukrainian doctors came to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN, to observe heart and lung transplant operations. This lead beginning for current Program that engaged 85 participants in 2,5 years.
The year 2024 we started with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in San Diego, CA in April. For the second time Ukrainian delegation of seven cancer researchers was invited and hosted at the event on such level. We were introduced to their working groups, internal scientific media and research experts, and the leaders of the top U.S. cancer centers and departments.
After the conference the group attended Stanford University (in collaboration with Dr. Nataliya Kovalchuk and HUG group), Louisiana Cancer Research Center (Dr. Joe Ramos), Tulane University and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Read “Fighting Cancer on Two Fronts in Ukraine” by LCRC following exceptionally warm welcome from their side. The visit to MD Anderson was a highlight of the trip as we get a chance to meet the world top cancer experts, including Noble Laureate Dr. Jim Allison.
In June 2024 we had a group of bone marrow transplant experts from the National Ohmadyt Childrens Hospital visit the ASCO annual conference in Chicago, IL, with the support of the European Cancer Organization (ECO). We focused on networking, opportunities for professional development and collaborations for quality of cancer care improvement. While in Chicago the group attend Loyola Chicago University lab of Dr. Michael Nishimura to explore opportunities of brining to Ukraine retrovirus based CAR-T cell therapies.
Then we went to University of Pennsylvania on the invitation of Dr. Carl June who pioneered CAR-T cell therapy and together with a team (Dr. David Porter, Dr. Bruce Levine, Dr. Stephan Grupp) built a world top research and clinical center for cellular therapy. The trip continued to Jefferson Health's Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (Dr. Alex Khariton), NIH Clinical Center (Dr. Richard Childs, Dr. James Gilman), and Johns Hopkins Medical Center (Dr. Richard Jones, Dr. Donald Small. Read “Ukrainian Doctors Seek Advanced Cancer Treatment Knowledge Amidst War” by UPenn Center for Global Health.
In May we had a group of five family medicine practitioners attend Tulsa, OH, and Houston, TX for observership at His Image program at Ascension St. John hospital and Tilman Fertitta Family College of Medicine at University of Houston kindly organized by its founding dean Dr. Stephen Spann who I met in the City Rise church we both attend.
During this visit I introduced to Ukrainians Dr. Ajai Sambasivan from UT Physicians Musculoskeletal Clinic . We got to know each other as our sons played together at the local Bellaire Baseball Little League “Michigan Wolverines” team coached by Charlie Nater from MD Anderson. Together with his partner (Dr. Chen) they applied and won the grant from University of Texas at Houston (Office of Global Health Initiatives) to go to Poland to teach Ukrainian physicians how to perform pain procedures to help their injured citizens. Read a report by the Polish National Institute of Oncology “Training for radiologists from Ukraine at NIO” and see Dr. Chen’s Instagram. The project was done in partnership with Christian Medical Association of Ukraine.
Later in October there was another group of Ukrainian cancer surgeons coming to MD Anderson for a brief intro visit thanks to Dr. Charles Balch.
Special attention is worth a third (!) training visit to Vanderbilt Transplant Center by our colleagues. With the help of Vanderbilt and other transplant centers, Ukraine has developed a growing transplant program in the country in the last four years. Read “Ukrainian team visits VUMC to hone transplant surgery skills” by VUMC Reporter.
Finally, the year ended with arranging a trip for a Ukrainian blood cancer specialists to Cincinnati and Cleveland in Ohio. Oncology Hematology Care is the largest independent provider of Oncology Care in the state of Ohio with over 130,000 patient visits per year. We are truly touched by the hospitality of local colleagues. They are so supportive for our people and invite to host more colleagues next year.
Social media posts by the hosts and participants:
https://www.facebook.com/peacedevelopment.fund
