The press conference at the TASS news agency in St. Petersburg was attended by Andrey Maksimov, Chairman of the St. Petersburg Committee on Science and Higher Education; Evgeny Shlyakhto, Director General of the Almazov National Medical Research Centre and Academician of the Russian Academy of Science; Alexandra Konradi, Deputy Director General for Science at the Almazov Centre; Elena Parmon, Director of the Medical Education Institute at the Almazov Centre as well as representatives from leading St. Petersburg universities that are members of the Scientific and Educational Medical Cluster “Translational Medicine”.
The press conference announced the launch of a unique pilot program for specialist training in General Medicine at the Almazov Centre in 2018. In this context, the participants discussed the challenges facing the Centre in connection with the training of tomorrow’s doctors. In 2017, Vladimir Putin issued the relevant Presidential Order to the Russian government for the roll-out of the pilot program.
According to Government Decree No. 8 of 13 January 2018, the Almazov Centre will be the first Russian scientific institution to train doctors in a higher education program.
“We are not yet another medical university,” explained Evgeny Shlyakhto. “We are going to offer a completely new training for doctors, where research will be the cornerstone of the program. Scientific integration is a crucial point today and science should be at the forefront. Today, the research input into a doctor’s training is insufficient. A practice-oriented doctor should know how to handle all research processes.” The project involving the use of new training forms engages teachers and instructors from the leading universities and research institutes, including members of the Scientific and Educational Medical Cluster “Translational Medicine”.
The traditional medical education framework will be supplemented with interdisciplinary insights into biomedicine, genetic engineering, computational biomedicine, telemedicine, translational medicine, information technologies. To support the project, instructional programs will be offered by the Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health, the Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University, Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, Saint Petersburg State Chemical Pharmaceutical Academy.
The training program is to be implemented from 2018 to 2024. During this period of time, the Almazov Centre will annually enroll the best graduates on a competitive basis.