Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

First Deputy Health Minister Vasyl Lazorishinets on July 27 said TV medical centers exist in eight medical education institutes out of 15 existing medical institutes and in four out of nine research and medical practice centers. A medical TV network that would cover leading scientific intuitions, the Ukrainian Health Ministry and regional and central district hospitals, could be set up in Ukraine, First Deputy Health Minister Vasyl Lazorishinets said at a press conference on Tuesday after the presentation of the first medical TV network in Ukraine, which united the Health Ministry, the Kyiv medical TV clinical scientific and practice center and Donetsk and Zakarpattia regional hospitals.

The first medical TV network was established as a part of the mobile medicine project, which is being realized under patronage of the Ukrainian Health Minister and support of the UN in Ukraine and the sponsorship and support of the MTS Ukraine mobile phone operator. A memorandum on the realization of the project was signed on October 1, 2009. The network was built between October 2009 and the middle of January 2010.

Lazorishinets said that the creation of the medical TV network would allow considerable savings of budget funds. The network would make special medical aid more affordable for residents of regional centers and patients, who at present have come to receive consultations in regional hospitals from remote towns.

He said that the medical TV network had been tested for holding of some roundtables and scientific conferences. In the future, the network would be used to collect statistics and scientific data. In case of emergencies, such as the flu epidemic last winter, the network would allow communications with the regions to be quickly established.

Lazorishinets said that today TV medical centers exist in eight medical education institutes out of 15 existing medical institutes and in four out of nine research and practice centers. The next step would be to join regional hospitals to the network, and later district hospitals.

MTS Ukraine Director General Andrey Dubovskov said that the company's investment in the creation of the project stood at UAH 1 million, taking into account equipment and payment for calls this year. The mobile medicine project is based on an Internet access service, which MTS Ukraine provides on the basis of a fixed optic-fiber network. The technical solution for provision of Internet access is the building of a virtual private network (VPN).

Lazorishinets called on other companies to become sponsors of the project so that it was not only MTS Ukraine that covered the expenses.