According to the UMC Strategic Plan for 2019-2023, the priority of UMC is to become a center of excellence and knowledge, which requires a successful synergy of research, educational and clinical activities. The solution to this problem is carried out with the partner support of leading foreign medical, educational and research organizations, including within the framework of the budget program 024 “Target contribution to Nazarbayev University.” Coordination and organizational support of events within the framework of this cooperation is carried out by the Department of Education.

The main types of activities aimed at increasing the potential of UMC employees include internships abroad, mentoring with the involvement of foreign specialists, as well as master classes with the participation of leading foreign specialists. The implementation of these measures allows us to introduce not only medical, but also managerial and academic innovative technologies into the practice of UMC.

The main principles of the implementation of educational activities are:

• Focus on long-term cooperation with strategic partners – leading foreign centers and clinics;
• multidisciplinary composition of groups of trained specialists for a versatile focus of studying clinical cases;
• Focus on attracting foreign specialists to Kazakhstan;
• Focus on technologies for the treatment of nosologies, according to which citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan are sent for treatment abroad within the state budget, including the children’s population;
• Focus on short – and long-term priorities for the development of UMC clinical and academic departments based on forecasting needs and taking into account the priority directions of the country’s healthcare development.

UMC training abroad

Doctors and nurses of UMC clinics annually improve their professional qualifications in leading foreign organizations in priority areas.

The new knowledge and experience gained abroad make it possible to create promising human resources, introduce best international practice, improve performance indicators, and improve the quality and safety of medical services.

From 2021 to the present, there have been trained 123 UMC specialists in the leading foreign medical centers in the following main clinical and management areas:

• Management of the Academic Medical Center of the Integrated Academic Healthcare System of Nazarbayev University
• Oncology
• pediatric orthopedics
• Pediatric urology
• Pediatric and adult surgery
• Cardiology
• Cardiac surgery
• radiation diagnostics
• Genetics
• Laboratory medicine
• etc.

Mentoring Programs at UMC

Since 2021, 93 foreign mentors from leading hospitals of the USA, Japan, Korea, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Finland, and other countries in such areas as pediatrics, orthopedics, surgery, oncology, urology etc. have been attracted to conduct mentorship at UMC centers for UMC’s doctors and nurses and improve their professional skills of medical staff.

Conducting master classes at UMC

Every year, master classes are held on the basis of UMC with the involvement of foreign specialists from leading advanced medical centers. From 2021 to the present, there have been conducted 17 master classes. Donor organs were transplanted; surgical treatment was performed for children with congenital malformations of the lower jaw, as well as impaired sexual development with urogenital sinus, atypical development of the genitals. Surgeries were also performed on children with congenital heart defects of complex shapes.

Conducting an advanced training course for UMC nursing specialists

One of the important strategic objectives of UMC is to develop the competencies of nurses at the level of international standards and expand the areas of competence of nursing staff. To ensure the work processes of UMC nursing specialists in accordance with international standards, nurses are trained annually in the professional training programs at the Nazarbayev University School of Medicine, developed jointly with the strategic partner University of Pittsburgh.

The main foreign partners of UMC are:

• University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, USA

• National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan
• Instituto Giannina Gaslini, Italy
• JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Finland
  • Rambam State Medical Center, Haifa, Israel
• Yeson Voice Center, Korea
• Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
• Bahcesehir University Goztepe Medical Park, Istanbul, Turkey.
• Dmitry Rogachev National Medical Research Center for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, Moscow, Russia
  • Central Research Institute of Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow
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The implemented activities were aimed at improving the skills of multidisciplinary clinical teams in certain key areas of UMC and introducing new methods of diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation into clinical practice in accordance with international standards.