August 11, 2006

From left, Jeanette Ives Erickson, RN, MS, senior vice president for Patient Care Services and chief nurse, Peter L. Slavin, MD, president of the MGH, Dosseav, Sharman and David Jones, executive director of the Partners International Program

Kazakhstan delegation visits
MGH and BWH

Working in collaboration with the Partners International Program, the MGH and BWH hosted Erbolat Dossaev, the Minister of Health from Kazakhstan, who traveled to Boston recently to explore possibilities for collaboration between the two hospitals and medical facilities in Kazakhstan.

Located in central Asia, Kazakhstan gained independence in 1991, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country currently is attempting to transform its old Soviet health care infrastructure into a new national health system. Having recently announced plans for state-of-the-art specialty hospitals, research facilities and clinical training centers in the new capital city of Astana, the Minister requested meetings with MGH leadership to discuss how the hospital might support these initiatives, as well as other elements on his agenda for national health care reform.

The Minister and his advisor, Almaz Sharman, MD, PhD, also met with Kevin Hughes, MD, co-director of the MGH's Avon Foundation Comprehensive Breast Evaluation Center, to learn more about genetic risk assessment for breast cancer. Later they discussed potential telemedicine linkages with Joe Ternullo, associate director of Partners Telemedicine, and then met with staff from the International Patient Center. Shelly Riley of the MGH Visitor Education Program gave them an overview of the history of the MGH that included a hospital tour and a visit to the historic Ether Dome.

Later in the afternoon, the dignitaries toured the Francis H. Burr Proton Beam Center with Paul Busse, MD, PhD, of MGH Radiation Oncology. Their visit concluded with a meeting with David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, director of the MGH Institute for Health Policy, who offered insights from other newly emerging health systems around the world.