Five people took part in the televised debates on the Saint Petersburg TV channel in connection with the upcoming presidential elections in March. They presented their candidates' programmes for the development of the country. The interests of Vladimir Putin, the current President of Russia and a candidate for the presidency, were represented by Vasily Volobuev, Chairman of the Council of the St. Petersburg Veterans' Organisation, and Evgeny Shlyakhto, Director General of Almazov Centre, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who spoke about the current policy and further course in the field of health care.
«Speaking about the strategic directions of medicine in the Russian Federation, which have been initiated and are being implemented with the active participation of our presidential candidate Vladimir Putin, we must first of all say that our medicine focuses on individual patient needs. This is patient-centered care, this is a personalized approach, which really means focusing on the outcome and not the process,» Evgeny Shlyakhto said in his five-minute speech.
He also stressed that any modern healthcare system is primarily linked to new technologies, and that it is impossible to build it without the development of science. Prof. Shlyakhto emphasized how much Vladimir Putin is doing for the development of medical science and education, as well as for new technologies to become everyday tools for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease. He cited the successes of the national projects: «Science» and «Health», which are currently being implemented.
«When we talk about results in healthcare, a lot has been done. For example, as part of the federal project to combat cardiovascular disease, we have achieved historically low mortality rates. I would like to emphasize that this has never happened in our history. And every year we reduce this rate by a further 3-4%. Surprisingly, the rate of recurrence of events such as heart attacks and strokes is also falling,» says Evgeny Shlyakhto.
Today, more than 30 medicines classified as life-saving technologies are provided free of charge to patients who have suffered a coronary event (heart attack, surgery, stroke, arrhythmia, heart failure). This is a tremendous resource that improves patient compliance and reduces the number of adverse events.
The focus on preventive health care was also mentioned, as well as the active work on the creation of a polygenic risk scale, which in the future will allow each person to predict the likelihood of developing various diseases.
Much has also been done in the fight against cancer. Each year, the government increases its support for the provision of free chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer patients. Russian scientists work tirelessly to develop new medicines. Today, Russia produces 510 drugs used to treat cancer.
«Today, our goal is not even import substitution, but complete technological independence for our country. This task was set by Vladimir Putin and it is being successfully fulfilled with his active participation. Just recently, Vladimir Putin held a meeting with scientists at the Forum of Future Technologies, where it was reiterated that national medical centres will be actively developed and will continue to develop independently of imports. We will create entirely new gene therapy drugs to fight cancer,» said director general of Almazov Centre.
In the future, healthcare will be delivered more at the primary outpatient level. To this end, a programme to re-equip and upgrade outpatient clinics has been underway for several years. New models of modern facilities are being developed.
Prof. Shlyakhto concluded his speech by saying that the state is currently paying a lot of attention to human resources. The strategy of modern Russia is the active involvement of professional organizations. The symbiosis between government and professional organizations allows for a deeper understanding of current issues and the incorporation of the best ideas and proposals into the work.