Russian physicians get dose of U.S. medicine
Visitors from Tula, Albany's sister city, tour region's health facilities
By CLAIRE HUGHES, Staff writer
Albany Times Union
Early on the first day of a week's visit in the Capital Region, Dr. Olga I. Kudryavtseva found something she wants to bring home.
It's Parsons Child and Family Center's method of providing health care to children from troubled families right on its campus, rather than transporting them to a hospital. In Tula, Russia, where Kudryavtseva is deputy chief doctor at City Hospital No. 1, children who are separated from their parents must go through the added ordeal of going to yet another unfamiliar setting when they need medical care.
"Those kids who were admitted to this center, they already experienced stress. There's no need to take them to another hospital to experience more stress," said Kudryavtseva, speaking through interpreter Alexander Sergeev, a Russian who is studying at the University at Albany's School of Public Health.
Kudryavtseva is one of eight doctors and medical managers from Tula touring health facilities in the Capital Region this week as part of a program arranged by the U.S. Library of Congress. A group of 57 Russians arrived in Washington, D.C., Saturday and then dispersed around the country to learn about the American health system, said Sergey Pukhanov, a facilitator with the Albany group.
The group that came to Albany is unique in being from one city, said Dr. David Carpenter, who is director of the School of Public Health's Institute for Health and the Environment as well as chairman of the Albany-Tula Alliance. The alliance, which began an exchange between Albany and Tula residents 10 years ago, applied to host Russian doctors here but requested they all come from the capital's sister city, Carpenter said.
Dr. Viktor Vasilyev, who heads Tula's health commission, said the most critical issue facing the Russian doctors is to improve maternal and child care.
Other areas of focus, according to Vasilyev and Kudryavtseva, include care for HIV and AIDS patients, alcoholism and drug addiction, and the way health care is structured and administered in the United States.
"Americans, in my opinion, are less emotional people, but they are more organized," Kudryavtseva said.
The doctors started their tour at Parsons because they were interested in children's mental health, Kudryavtseva said. At Albany Medical Center Monday afternoon, they heard lectures on topics like emergency care and birth defects, and two obstetricians-gynecologists toured the neonatal intensive care unit. Tuesday, their agenda included a trip to Albany's Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center to learn about HIV prevention efforts. Today they are scheduled to get a demonstration of tele-home care, a way to treat patients in remote locations, at the Eddy Visiting Nurse Association. On Thursday, the agenda includes a trip to St. Peter's Addiction Recovery Center.
"I wish to extend my gratitude to the Tula-Albany for the possibility given to us to come here," Vasilyev said. "As for myself and for my colleagues, it is very useful."