Russia

Helpful Resources
	Sarov/Los Alamos Partners Hold First Asthma Day (AIHA Connections, August 2002)
	AIHA Partners Work in Schools to Curb Adolescent Drinking and Smoking (AIHA Connections, January 2003)
	Partnership Community Education and Outreach Programs Spark a Healthcare Revolution in Russia’s Tomsk Oblast (AIHA Connections, August 2003)
	Volgograd/Little Rock Dissemination Conference Shares Best Practices in Family Medicine Reform (AIHA Connections, May 2004)

AIHA's Primary Healthcare Program in Russia began in 1999 and seven partnerships focusing on primary care were launched. Together, they established nine model Primary Healthcare Centers. In some instances, these partnerships established Women’s Wellness Centers instead of, or in addition to, the Primary Healthcare Centers depending on the needs of the host communities. These partnerships are:

Khabarovsk/Lexington, Kentucky
Kurgan and Schuche/Appleton, Wisconsin
Sakhalin/Houston, Texas
Sarov/Los Alamos, New Mexico
Snezhinsk/Livermore, California
Tomsk/Bemidji, Minnesota
Volgograd/Little Rock, Arkansas

Examples of their accomplishments include:

The partnership that linked the Russian cities of Samara and Stavropol with several communities in Iowa was established in 1999 to develop a community-based primary healthcare system in Samara. Partners worked together to improve the health status of vulnerable populations, with particular focus on maternal health, adolescent health, and prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This objective was met, in part, through the development of a Primary Healthcare Center and a Women's Wellness Center at existing polyclinics. Through these facilities a number of positive changes resulted, including substantial savings in costs due to a reduction in hospitalizations. A Primary Healthcare Center at Medical Unit No. 2 was also opened in Samara in March 2002. The Center serves an isolated and poor population of 1,700.

Another partnership linked the Tomsk Oblast Administration in Siberia with Bemidji, Minnesota. The objective of this alliance was to establish a successful model for healthcare delivery in the Tomsk Rayon that could be replicated throughout Tomsk Oblast. As part of the initiative, partners opened a Primary Healthcare Center in Kislovka in March 2002, as well as a second center in Zonalny in 2003. Both facilities offer high-quality primary care and patient education and outreach services. They also serve as clinical training sites for family medicine students at Tomsk Medical University. A third center was later opened in the community of Svetly. The total population served by these three centers exceeds 11,000.

And, an existing partnership linking Volgograd Medical University with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock was awarded a sustainability grant in November 2004 to assist the oblast health administration’s efforts to improve primary care services in Volgograd. Partners worked to replicate the Primary Healthcare Center model in the communities of Volzhsky and Mikhailovka. Based at the Volgograd Medical University’s clinic, the new Primary Healthcare Center at Volzhsky is staffed by the University’s graduates. The hospital in Mikhailovka retrained 18 practicing physicians to be family medicine practitioners at the Primary Healthcare Center established onsite.

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