Rusfond: The Capital of Bashkiria Attracted Patients from 14 Countries
Interview with Neurosurgeon Rezida Galimova
Rusfond has been collaborating with neurosurgeon Rezida Galimova for a long time. In 2011, when the Bashkir bureau was just opened and we were actively looking for diagnoses not covered by the state budget, striving to promote the implementation of new technologies, it was Dr. Galimova, then Deputy Chief Physician for Surgery at the Republican Children’s Clinical Hospital in Ufa, who proposed using Rusfond to install neurostimulators for patients with cerebral palsy and vagus nerve stimulators for children with epilepsy.
And then actively trained colleagues in this technique in various regions of Russia. A few years ago, Rezida Galimova became the director of the V.S. Buzaev International Medical Centre, where beneficiaries of Rusfond undergo genetic testing. She also brought to our country a truly revolutionary method – treating tremor with focused ultrasound. We talked with Rezida Galimova about how it happened that this advanced technology first appeared in the capital of Bashkiria.
Dinara Nazyipova: How did it happen that advanced technology appeared in Ufa?
Rezida Galimova: In 2017, I was the only doctor from Russia to receive the unique Hubert Humphrey grant (an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th Vice President of the United States from 1965 to 1969. – Rusfond). It is awarded to young people who have achieved success in their professional activities in healthcare, education, agriculture, etc. I had the opportunity to intern in the USA in Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. This is a school where they teach health economics, finance, quality of medical care, accounting (by the way, the most difficult subject for me). At the same time, I enrolled at Johns Hopkins University (a private research university founded by John Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. – Rusfond) for MBA (Master of Business Administration, or Master of Business Administration), where she studied in the specialty “Healthcare Management”: learned to write business plans, create investment projects, and calculate program development.
During my studies, I learned about focused ultrasound, a technology available in Israel, Europe, and the USA, but not widely known in Russia yet. I realized then that patients in our country deserve similar medical care because seeing this method in action for the first time is deeply inspiring. All the knowledge I gained was useful, and we literally ignited the investor’s interest in this topic. He is someone who invests heavily in healthcare, education, and children’s sports in Bashkiria. He is an enthusiast and patriot of our republic, so there was no choice about where to open the clinic. Although we are used to having all the advanced things usually in Moscow or, at the very least, in St. Petersburg.
Dinara Nazhypova: What is it like to implement a completely new technology in our country? We all know you as a top-notch specialist, but surely other skills were needed here?
Rezida Galimova: In the premises where the V.S. Buzaev International Medical Centre is now located, a sports club was initially planned to open. In October 2018, there were bare walls and ceilings nearly five meters high, which had to be lowered. The clinic is situated on the second floor, and the equipment is very heavy—tens of tons—so it was necessary to reinforce the first and second floors, as well as the basement…
