The Almazov Federal Heart, Blood and Endocrinology Centre
The Almazov Federal Heart, Blood and Endocrinology Centre is a state-run research and medical institution. The centre carries out fundamental and applied research in cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, hematology, rheumatology, endocrinology, pediatrics, molecular biology and genetics, cell information technologies and nanotechnologies; provides specialised care, including high-tech medical care; prepares researchers, medical personnel and medical technicians in an effort to create a modern system of continuous postgraduate medical education.
Established in 1980, as the Research Cardiology Institute at the Russian Public Health Ministry, the centre has become a leading institution in Russia engaged in the development of new medical technologies in order to improve healthcare in the country.
From 2007 to 2010, the number of patients who received specialised medical treatment at the centre's clinic increased from 5,887 to 14,663, or up 150%, and the number of patients who received medical aid at the outpatient clinic surged 304.7%, from 21,623 to 87,500.
The centre has been performing heart transplants since 2009. Further improvements to high-tech medical care will be made in the following promising areas: multi-organ transplantation, the introduction of minimally invasive surgery, robotics systems and telemanipulators; the development of new pre-conditioning and post-conditioning methods to protect the myocardium and brain.
In 2007, a decision was taken to set up a federal perinatal centre on the basis of the centre's facilities. The government allocated 2.79 billion roubles (600 million roubles in 2008, 1.69 billion roubles in 2009 and 500 million roubles in 2010) from the federal budget for the construction of the perinatal centre, in line with the Russian government's Resolution No. 1734-r of December 4, 2007.
The perinatal centre will aim to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates; provide medical aid to women with serious heart, endocrine and blood diseases; perform surgical correction of congenital abnormalities in the development of the cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract and urinary system of fetuses and newborn infants.
The federal perinatal centre has a consultation and diagnostic department which can provide specialised medical consultations to 140 children and 66 adults per shift; an assisted reproductive technologies department which can offer up to 1,000 in vitro fertilisation cycles a year; a pathologic pregnancy unit (40 beds); a maternity unit which can annually assist 2,000 women in delivery and a postnatal unit (45 beds); a gynecology surgery unit with two operating rooms; a newborn physiology unit (45 beds); an anesthesiology, resuscitation and intensive care unit for newborn and prematurely born infants with defects (12 beds); a unit for treating defects in newborn and prematurely born infants (the second phase of treatment and care, 36 beds); a child surgery unit with three operating rooms; a unit for surgical treatment of cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and urinary system defects in newborn infants (14 beds), where mothers are allowed to stay with their newborn babies; an endoscopy department; a functional diagnostic department; and an roentgenology department with an MRI scanner. The centre employs 914 people.
A very distinctive feature of the federal perinatal centre is that it offers the expertise of multiple disciplines, and it uses this wide range of medical and diagnostic resources to provide medical treatment to pregnant women, women in labour and newborn infants. The centre plans to use molecular and genetic technologies and telemedicine systems for prenatal diagnosis of congenital defects in the development of the fetus, so that such defects could be quickly identified and treated.
The Perinatal and Pediatrics Institute, which is a part of the centre, will serve as a research and clinical platform for the development and introduction of new medical technologies.
