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19 February 2007 18:31

Representatives of the Ukraine 3000 Fund Meet with International Children's Heart Foundation Creator and President William Novick

February 19, 2007, representatives of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Fund met with founder and president of the International Children's Heart Foundation (Memphis, US) Professor William M. Novick. The participants of the meeting were Head of the Fund’s Supervisory Board Kateryna Yushchenko, Advisor to the Head of the Supervisory Board Andriy Myroshnichenko, Deputy Director of the Amosov Institute Prof. Vasyl Lazoryshynets, researcher with the Amosov Institute Ihor Mokryk, and Hospital to Hospital Program Coordinator Inna Holovanchuk.

In course of the meeting, Prof. Novick presented his international project on children’s cardiology and proposed the Ukraine 3000 Fund to join it as a partner. The project envisages research and analysis of the growth of cardio diseases rate in children in Ukraine and Belarus. It will be carried out in Kharkiv, Odesa, Rivne, Donetsk, and Kyiv oblasts. It is planned that the Odesa and Donetsk Oblast Children’s Hospitals, members of the Hospital to Hospital Program, will take part in this project.

Mrs. Yushchenko expressed great interest in implementing this project. She acknowledged the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Fund’s preparedness to join it, rendering necessary aid and support.

The parties agreed to have another meeting to discuss the project in more detail. Representatives of Ukrainian and American medicine and authorities are planned to be involved into this meeting.

The children’s cardiology project envisages training for its member hospitals’ staff members at a specialized cardio clinics in Washington, US. Its agenda also includes visits by American experts to Ukrainian hospitals, who will examine and operate on seriously ill Ukrainian children together with their Ukrainian colleagues.

Within the project’s framework, modern echocardiographic equipment will be installed in the participating clinics and master classes held for the staff.

The project is scheduled for several years, with presumptive costs of one million dollars.

Professor William M. Novick is a renowned cardio surgeon, founder and president of the International Children's Heart Foundation (Memphis, US). For the last decade Prof. Novick has been closely cooperating with the Amosov Institute. During this time a series of joint medical and scientific projects have been carried out. In the vein of the continuing cooperation, Prof. Novick together with the Genetics and Development Biology Center at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Bethesda, US) invited representatives of the Amosov Institute to take part in an international project aimed at researching the genetic basis for congenital heart diseases in children in Ukraine. One of the project’s objectives is researching the influence of the Chornobyl disaster on the growing rate of some congenital heart diseases observed in children in Ukraine and Belarus.