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 Science and 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 2016 to the present, there have been trained 289 UMC specialists in the leading foreign medical centers in the following main clinical and management areas:

• clinical and management management of clinical departments and service lines
• pediatric and adult oncology
• children’s orthopedics
• pediatric urology
• pediatric and adult surgery
• children’s rehabilitation
• radiation diagnostics
• pathomorphology
• etc.

Mentoring Programs at UMC

Since 2016,  there have been attracted 238 foreign mentors from leading hospitals of the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, France, Austria, Italy, Israel, Poland, Turkey, Finland and other countries at UMC centers in order  to mentor / mentor of UMC’s doctors and nurses and improve the professional level of medical personnel in such areas as pediatrics, orthopedics, surgery, rehabilitation, laboratory diagnostics, oncology, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, rheumatology, neurology, nursing, etc.

Conducting workshops in UMC

Every year, master classes are held on the basis of UMC with the involvement of foreign specialists from leading advanced medical centers. From 2016 to the present, there have been conducted 17 master classes. Donor organs were transplanted, bone marrow transplantation was performed, surgical treatment of children with cloacal malformation, as well as violation of sexual development with genitourinary sinus, atypical development of the genital organs was performed. Operations with the use of a ventral fixation system were also performed in the surgical treatment of scoliotic deformity in children.

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
• Instituto Giannina Gaslini, Italy
• Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu, Italy
• Kasari Lab, Semel Institute, UCLA USA, Los Angeles
• Medical University of Vienna, Austria
• Medical School Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
• JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Finland
• Charite University Hospital, Germany
• Rambam State Medical Center, Haifa, Israel
• Yeson Voice Center, Korea
• Bahcesehir University Goztepe Medical Park, Istanbul, Turkey.
• State Institution “Minsk Scientific and Practical Center of Surgery, Transplantology and Hematology”, Minsk, Belarus
• 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
• Federal Research Center for Rehabilitation of Disabled People named after G. A. Albrecht, Saint Petersburg, Russia

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.