Empowering Health Care Providers Worldwide

While Russia needs more than 40,000 skilled physicians to meet patient demands for high-tech medical procedures, only 5,000 are trained to perform these techniques.

But a first-of-its-kind professional education center is bringing together government, the scientific community and international business to fill the gap and improve health care in Russia. “Since my training at the Russian Center for Professional Education, I’ve performed laparoscopic operations on some of the most widespread conditions in Russia, such as appendectomies, ovarian cysts and peritonitis,” says Sergey Gorodkov, M.D., one of 3,000 physicians who have been trained at the center. “I’ve improved my skills, and I’m performing operations quicker and with greater confidence.”

The center is a public-private partnership between the Ministry of Health Care of the Republic of Tatarstan and Johnson & Johnson. It was established in record time—less than a year—and was officially opened in February 2008 by the president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.

That’s most significant is the center’s impact on patient care. “As a result of this partnership, the number of high-technology interventions during the past two years in our region alone has increased from 8,000 to 19,000,” says Airat Farrakhov, Minister of Health Care, Republic of Tatarstan. “We should achieve another two-fold increment in the next two years.”

Skills that Transform Care

Historically, medical school training in Russia has focused on lecture rather than applied practice. “Fatal medical mistakes are a significant risk,” says Olga Vereschagina, Strategic Affairs Director, Johnson & Johnson, LLC. “In addition, patients have to endure conventional, more invasive surgeries because so few doctors are trained to perform minimally invasive procedures.”

“The need for advanced surgical training is one of the greatest barriers to quality health care in Russia,” says Arman Voskertchyan, Managing Director, Johnson & Johnson, LLC. “Our goal is to transform professional education here. In doing so, we will help fulfill Our Credo responsibility to health care professionals and patients.”

At the Russian center in Kazan, 40 percent of study is based on theory and 60 percent on practice. “The simulators at the center gave me the opportunity to improve my manual skills. Now I’m trained to take part in complicated laparoscopy interventions,” says Dr. Gorodkov.

Caring Throughout the World

Johnson & Johnson has more than 25 professional education centers around the world, including the Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Institute, LLC and The VISION CARE INSTITUTE™, LLC.

For the Medical Devices and Diagnostics (MD&D) business, the centers support the organization’s desire to improve education in emerging and developed markets and establish innovative partnerships with government. Most recently, centers opened in São Paulo, Brazil, and Raynham, Mass.; other sites include Germany, France, India, China and Japan. In some centers, training is designed to serve the country’s or region’s unique clinical needs; other centers are designed to train professionals from around the world.

In Brazil, as in Russia, training is needed to improve patient care—an important part of the MD&D strategy for emerging markets. The Johnson & Johnson Medical Innovation Institute, which opened in São Paulo during the first quarter of 2010, is the first Johnson & Johnson institute of its kind in Latin America. It includes surgery rooms equipped with the latest medical technology and simulators. The institute will train about 4,000 health care professionals this year.

“The institute will help health care professionals keep current with the latest medical advances, enhance medical teaching, encourage clinical studies, facilitate knowledge-sharing and much more,” says George Marques, Institute Director. “In short, it will improve the standard of care for Latin Americans.”

Beyond Latin America, global orthopaedic and neurological care are advancing thanks to the DePuy Institute, LLC, an education, training and research center that opened in Raynham, Mass., in August 2009. It will offer more than 300 programs annually, covering the latest concepts, techniques and technologies in the areas of minimally invasive surgery, aging spine, deformity, neurological disease, joint replacement and trauma care.

The commitment to professional education has long been established in the United States and originated with the Endo-Surgery Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“The DePuy Institute and other centers serve as tangible evidence that we are serious about setting new standards of excellence in professional education,” says Diana Bacci-Walsh, Worldwide Vice President of Professional Education, DePuy Institute, LLC. “Our commitment is to continue to address unmet educational and clinical needs in a rapidly changing health care environment, to help lead to better patient care.”

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