The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s Project Ask the Doctor: Why Ukraine Needs an Integrated Healthcare Space

The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s project Ask the Doctor is a weekly online meeting with leading healthcare experts in Ukraine. Doctors talk about the situation in the healthcare sector, share best practices in treating diseases and, what is especially important today, give explanations about the coronavirus in a simple and understandable way. To date, more than 50 broadcasts have been released in the framework of the project. The guest of the next broadcast was Ivan Soroka, an adviser to the Minister of Health of Ukraine, the president of the NGO Ukrainian Medical Club, and a practicing doctor.

The expert emphasized that today the topic of creating a unified electronic healthcare space is acutely relevant in Ukraine. He explained what its purpose is:

‘This is the path to a modern healthcare system. I would really like citizens of Ukraine, regardless of their place of residence, be it Kyiv or Rivne, to be able to receive standardized, high-quality, affordable, effective and mostly free medical care in any healthcare institution.’

According to Ivan Soroka, such a space will also help develop the patient journey. That is, it is necessary to direct a patient exactly where the most optimal healthcare in their particular situation will be provided. The expert added that to this end it is necessary to link the operation of healthcare institutions and facilities in Ukraine by means of an integrated healthcare information network:

‘All patients should have access to standardized and controlled healthcare services and coming to any healthcare facility they should understand that it is safe and financially affordable here. So far, there is no control body for such services in Ukraine.’

The expert also expressed his opinion on the coronavirus vaccination. 

‘In general, vaccination is not a barrier to any other medical interventions. And, most likely, in most cases, the treatment of your other diseases will be safer,’ explained Ivan Soroka.

During the entire airtime of the project Ask the Doctor, its content on the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s digital platforms has been viewed more than 21 million times. Earlier, the experts of the program’s life broadcasts were such famous healthcare experts as cardiac surgeon Borys Todurov; a cardiologist, an associate member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, a member of the European Society of Cardiology Kateryna Amosova; a psychiatrist, the Doctor of Medical Sciences, a professor Oleh Chaban; the President of the Association of Anaesthesiologists of Ukraine Serhiy Dubrov, and other experts.

Video recordings of the program’s broadcasts with experienced healthcare practitioners are available for watching on the Rinat Akhmetov

Foundation’s page in Facebook, as well as in YouTube.

Ask the Doctor is part of the project Fighting COVID-19 in Ukraine. Rinat Akhmetov allocated a total of about UAH 500 million for the fight against the coronavirus. Thanks to this, the Foundation helped about 1.5 million people survive. This is the largest contribution of one philanthropist to the public healthcare sector of Ukraine during our country’s independence. More than 500 healthcare institutions across the country received over 1,000 pieces of equipment, including 216 lung ventilators and 159 oxygen concentrators. Public hospitals received more than 200,000 units of personal protective equipment. In addition, doctors received 337,000 rapid COVID-19 tests and 1,044 units of medical and laboratory equipment from the Foundation.

During 15 years of its operation, the Foundation helped eight million people survive. In the framework of the program Rinat Akhmetov – Saving Lives, the Foundation helped 3.7 million people survive.