V.A.Almazov Federal Center for Heart, Blood & Endocrinology
Akkuratov str, 2
197341 St. Petersburg

Russian Federation

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Project Leader

Prof. Eugeniy Shlyakhto Project Leader  Contact

Project Staff

Prof. Andrey Zaritskey Scientific Coordinator   Phone: +7-(0)921 7413718  Contact

Institute Presentation

Federal Almazov Heart, Blood and Endocrinology Centre

Research  Practice  Education

Federal Almazov Heart, Blood and Endocrinology Centre can truly be called one of the biggest federal medical institutions of the Russian Federation, specialized in high-tech medical care. Until recently we could offer only the opportunities of the former territories of the Research Institute of Cardiology. Huge scientific and clinical potential of the Centre allowed to aspire to solve the territorial problem, and Almazov Centre is an actively growing institution nowadays.  Last years turned out to be very important for the Centre: new research departments opened; the Centre was reorganized and now represented by six research institutions; new building was put into operation; medical and surgical care opportunities are expanding. The Centre's scope of activities is widening. From the specialized cardiological institution Centre transforms into the leading multidisciplinary institution, which includes different medical branches. Thanks to the development of innovation technologies and good educational basis our approach to treatment and follow up of patients is realized in accordance with the newest medical research data. The Centre's leading specialists are constantly instructing their younger colleagues with all the wisdom of medicine, preparing the professionals for the different regions of Russia. We see the meaning of our work in saving human lives and keeping health.

Centre's history
 
Centre's history begins in 1980, when Leningrad's Research Institute of Cardiology (RIC) was founded. Professor V.A. Almazov, the head of the Intenal Medicine Chair of the Pavlov 1st Medical Institute headed the new institution. Cardiorheumatologic clinic with 300 beds was signed to the Institute, in 1987 60 beds for cardiosurgical patients were added.  The Institute became one of the leading medical research centers in Russia, which  created the new technologies in the field of cardiovascular diseases treatment, prevention and diagnostics. Since 2001 RIC has been headed by V.A.Almazov's follower - professor E.V.Shlyakhto. In 2002 Institute was assigned by the name of its founder - the member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences V.A.Almazov. In 2006 RIC was transformed into Federal Almazov Heart, Blood and Endocrinology Centre.

Basic goals

• fundamental and clinical research in cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, transfusion and cell therapy, rheumatology, endocrinology, haematology and neurology; 
• creation of new health care technologies for treatment, diagnostics and prevention of neurologic, cardiovascular, haematologic, endocrinologic diseases;  
• implementation in practice of medical and preventive facilities the results of researches to decrease morbidity and  mortality from the cardiovascular, blood  and endocrine organs diseases in Russian Federation;
• rendering high-tech medical aid to the population in the fields of  cardiology, cardiosurgery,  endocrinology, rheumatology, haematology and another ones;
• research, medical and nursing staff trainings according to the institution profile for the high-tech medical centres in Russia.

Research work

There are 6 research institutions in Centre's structure nowadays:

• Institute of Heart and Vessels
• Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Institute of Experimental Medicine
• Institute of Endocrinology 
• Institute of Haemotology 
• Institute of Perinatology and Pediatrics

47 research departments and laboratories are included as a compound of the institutes. Research staff consists of nearly 500 persons. 2 corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, 59 PhD consultants and 129 PhDs work at the Centre.

Priority research directions
 
1. Study of underlying molecular and genetic origins of cardiovascular, blood, endocrine organs and rheumatologic diseases; development of the new predictive methods of cardiovascular, haemotologic, endocrinologic, and rheumatologic diseases in the healthy people; clarification of individual cardiovascular, blood, rheumatologic diseases and endocrine pathology prevention and treatment on the base of patients' genetic cards; new cell therapy technologies development and implementation of the nanotechnologies into the cardiovascular diseases treatment.

2. High-tech cardiological and cardiovascular treatment implementation. Development of new treatment methods of congenital and acquired heart valvular diseases (including the newborns and younger children); coronary artery bypass grafting; new high-tech methods of the diagnostics, surgery and  treatment of the heart rhythm  and cardiac conduction disorder; new transfusion therapy methods. Improving of cardiovascular surgery based on using the remote handing tools, minimally invasive surgery and hybrid procedures.

3. Improvement of high-tech help in accordance with based-evidence standards and optimal preoperative examination scheme to find out additional risk factors and to decrease the complications during different cardiosurgical procedures. Myocardial protection optimization in off-pump and with heart-lung bypasscardiovascular procedures and by means of ischemic and pharmacological preconditioning, ischemic postconditioning. Prophylactics of intra- and postoperative complications by means of minimization of ischemic and perfusion injury.

4. Optimization and implementation of care in patients with arterial hypertension, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus; new methods of periodic health examination in the organized and unorganized collectives; creation of paramedics care system and preventive rooms net; implementation of high informational and telemedicine technologies into the screening and epidemiological populative researches; study of the origins and development of the new treatment methods for patients with arterial hypertension, blood and endocrinological disease..

5. Improving of administration specialized high-tech medical help for the population, creation of systems of medical aid quality on the basis of high informational and telehealth technologies  support,  development of continuous online education system using the telehealth technologies and individualized online education.

6. Development and implementation of new medical technologies in perinatology, dedicated to providing high-tech medical help to women, suffering from cardiovascular pathology during the pregnancy and maternity; to prenatal diagnosis and approaches to heart and vessels congenital abnormalities with following surgical correction of congenital heart diseases in the newborns.

7. Development of new methods of clinical rehabilitation after the conservative and surgical treatment in patients with cardiovascular, blood, endocrine and rheumatologic diseases.

Practice

Clinical departments of Almazov Centre are located at Akkuratova str., 2 (Inpatient-outpatient Unit) and  Parkhomenko pr., 5 (Clinical-Rehabilitation Unit).
There are more than 2000 staff working at the Centre. The total amount of beds is 710. The outpatient clinic  of the Centre is annually visited by 73 000 patients. 7 500 patients are annually treated at the inpatient departments at Akkuratova str., 2 . Blood transfusion station facilities allow to provide more than 6000kg of blood annually, make to 3000 cytaferesis procedures, to save in the blood bank to 1000 erythrocyte, platelet and other blood and bone marrow cells doses. Almazov Centre provides high-tech medical help in the following fields: endocrinology, hematology, rheumatology, cardiovascular surgery. Amount of patients, provided with high-tech medical aid is more than 3200 annually. Almazov Centre have also got a government task to render high-tech medical help in transplantology, neurology, abdominal surgery, oncology, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery. More than 2500 cardiovascular surgeries are made annually. Mortality rate in case of cardiovascular invasions using extracorporeal circulation recently is equal to 1, 2 % recently that corresponds to the world leading clinics level.

At the Inpatient-Outpatient Unit (Akkuratova, 2) are :

• Outpatient department
• Haemotransfusion station with a cryobank
• Cardiologic department
• Myocardial infarction department
• Haematologic department
• Neurologic department
• Rheumatologic department
• Diagnostics department
• MRT department
• Computer tomography department
• Central clinical laboratory
• 3 cardiosurgical department, including one for children
• Operation rooms
• Catheterization laboratory
• Intensive care unit

At the Clinical-Rehabilitation Unit #1 (Parkhomenko pr., 15) are:

• Diagnostics centre
• X-ray department
• Intensive care unit
• Diagnostics department
• 2 endocrinologic department
• 4 cardiologic department
• Psychotherapeutic department
• Ophthalmologic department
• Remedial gymnastic department
• Physical therapy department
• Radiologic laboratory
• Computer tomography room
• Endoscopy room
• Catheterization laboratory

Training and Education

5 kinds of professional education are being provided at the Centre.

Clinical residency, degrees in: cardiology; cardiovascular surgery; intensive care and anesthesiology; functional diagnostics; haemotology; transfusiology; endocrinology; rheumatology; clinical laboratory diagnostics;
PhD training in: cardiology, cardiovascular surgery; intensive care and anesthesiology; clinical laboratory diagnostics;
PhD consultant training in: cardiology; cardiovascular surgery;
Professional retraining (studying more than 500 hours), degrees in: cardiology; cardiovascular surgery; intensive care and anesthesiology; functional diagnostics; haemotology; transfusiology; endocrinology; rheumatology; clinical laboratory diagnostics;
Postgraduate courses (less than 500 hours) in: cardiology; cardiovascular surgery; intensive care and anesthesiology; functional diagnostics; haemotology; transfusiology; endocrinology; rheumatology; clinical laboratory diagnostics.

Centre's international collaboration is actualized in common projects with Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg and University in Toulouse (France), Karolinska Institute, Lunds University (Sweden), Yale University, Iowa State University (USA), University of Oslo (Norway), Manheim and Hamburg Universities (Germany).
In March 2008 Centre, first of the Russian research-medical institutions, was awarded by European Society of Hypertension of status "ESH Hypertension Excellence Centre".

Almazov Centre development prospects:

1. Completion of the Perinatal Centre construction in 2010 within the framework of the national project "The health"
2. Construction within the framework of the Federal targeted investment program:

• Clinical-Rehabilitation corpus #2 (Akkuratova, 2)
• Clinical-Rehabilitation corpus #3 for the Perinatal Centre
• Clinical-Rehabilitation corpus #1 reconstruction (Parkhomenko pr, 15)

http://www.almazovcentre.ru
info[at]hbe-centre.ru