In response to Russia’s unprovoked invasion into Ukraine, Dr. Mark Poznansky, Director of VIC, along with Dr. Nelya Melnitchouk and Dr. Jaqueline Hart co-founded the Heal Ukraine Group, or HUG, a consortium of Harvard-affiliated physicians, scientists, and healthcare professionals from Boston-based medical institutions who came together to address the needs of clinicians impacted by the war in Ukraine.
HUG’s initiatives, programming, and objectives focus on enhancing and expanding the delivery of acute care under the dire circumstances while we simultaneously help to rejuvenate and improve long-term medical delivery in Ukraine. Through deliberate, collaborative measures with partners in the U.S. and Ukraine, our committed faculty aspire to, and will achieve, advancement of healthcare provision throughout the country for decades beyond this cruel and senseless war.
- To provide medical supplies and expertise directly to Ukraine.
- Increase public awareness about the changing face of unmet medical needs in Ukraine
- Fundraising for NGO activities with which our team members are associated
– Sponsorship of Ukrainian Doctors for training in Boston
The Harvard-HUG Medical Scholars-at-Risk program sponsors Ukrainian physicians for 1 to 3 month observerships at Harvard-affiliated hospitals, to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to advance the capacity for improved medical care and services in their country and disseminate this learning to their colleagues upon return to Ukraine. The overarching aim is to not only rebuild, but to also reform infrastructure and healthcare delivery, addressing both acute and long-term needs to help advance Ukraine’s medical system despite the circumstances of the war. Read more on this educational initiative, including the Ukrainian physicians, their specialties and updates on their work back in Ukraine on the HUG website HERE.
– Delivery of requested Medical Supplies
Through Ukrainian contacts on the ground, HUG procures and delivers specifically requested medical supplies directly and accountably to medical clinics in Ukraine. To date, HUG has supplied tens of thousands of lifesaving surgical materials and medical equipment, ranging from portable ultrasounds, cardiac monitors, and mechanical ventilators to wound vacuum therapy units, tourniquets, boxes of surgical staples and sutures, and similar surgical consumables.
– HealUA application
The first free mobile application developed by GMKA and the startup studio Empat that unites Ukrainian doctors with each other and doctors abroad for remote peer-to-peer consultations. Through this application, more than 2700 physicians exchange their learning and experiences through daily discussions of clinical cases of varying complexity.
– Translation of evidence-based medical protocols and resources into Ukrainian
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Gennadiy Fuzaylov, MD
Pediatric Anesthesiologist, MGH Assistant Professor of Anesthesia, HMS President and Founder, Doctors Collaborating to Help ChildrenNelya Melnitchouk, MD, MSc
Colorectal Surgeon, BWH
Assistant Professor of Surgery, HMS
President and Founder, Global Medical Knowledge Alliance
Serguei Melnitchouk, MD, MPH
Cardiac Surgeon, MGH Co-Director, Heart Valve Program Assistant Professor of Surgery, HMS Founder Global Medical Knowledge AllianceDr. Dana Rumak
Ivano-Frankivsk, UkrainePolina Teslyar, MD
Associate Psychiatrist, BWH
Instructor, HMS
Hosted by:
Mark C. Poznansky, MD, PhD
Director, Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center, MGH
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
