Ukrainian parliament passed draft law On Transplantation of Human Organs, Tissues and Cells

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) is a global healthcare knowledge provider, with expertise in healthcare education, clinical decision support, research and publishing, and a vision of creating a healthier world by sharing knowledge and expertise to improve experiences, outcomes and value.

Within the framework of the Clinical Decision Support (CDS) initiative, the BMJ collaborates with the Ministries of Health to provide medical doctors with BMJ Best Practice and BMJ Learning, with online evidence-based decision support tools to improve their ability to detect, diagnose and manage patients. 

The Initiative provides clinicians and healthcare professionals with evidence-based online tools and resources, including BMJ Best Practice and BMJ Learning, to improve the diagnosis, treatment and management of both communicable and noncommunicable diseases. Produced by international experts, they are reviewed by Ukrainian clinicians and experts and adapted to users in country in Ukrainian language, available offline, online and via mobile devices. The programme is fully supported by the Ministry of Health and a national Working Group.

BMJ Best Practice is an online decision support tool that gives doctors fast and easy access to the latest information when making diagnosis and treatment decisions. Updated daily, it draws on the latest evidence-based research, guidelines and expert opinion to offer step-by-step guidance on diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and prevention.

BMJ Learning is an online learning resource that offers healthcare professionals a fast and efficient way to test their knowledge and keep up to date with the latest developments in medicine. It features over 1,000 evidence-based, peer-reviewed learning modules across 70 specialty areas.

How to Join

• doctors

Only doctors who have the right to practice medical activities (specialists who have a diploma and an actual certificate of a specialist) are allowed to join the BMJ project. In addition, it is important that the physician is motivated to improve his/her qualifications and professional development. 

For registration doctors must provide their own e-mail address, their private mobile phone number, and must have an access to the Internet. Also, to connect to the resource, the access code of the institution in which the doctor works is needed. If s/he combines work in several medical institutions, it is important to remember that registration is possible ONLY ONCE (from one institution).

To access the resource, contact the project coordinator in your area.

Contact information of coordinators: https://goo.gl/GYegbk

BMJ SITE:www.cds.bmj.com

• coordinators

BMJ coordinators can solve the issue with the program manager BMJ Olena Novichkova: enovichkova@bmj.com

Anton Sohan video-interview

WORKING GROUP

May 17, 2018 – Kyiv, Ukraine – Today, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted at its second reading draft law No. 2386-1a "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Health Care and Transplantation of Human Organs and Other Anatomical Materials". It is an important and long-awaited step forward to developing transplantology in Ukraine.

The draft law was registered in the Verkhovna Rada back in August 2015, that is, almost three years ago. The Ministry of Health of Ukraine acknowledged the importance of establishing the legal basis for the development of a national system regulating transplantation of human organs, tissues and cells. Therefore, we took part in the elaboration and finalization of this draft law and have consistently supported its adoption.

The establishment of well-regulated transplantation practices is one of the indicators of progress in improving national healthcare, and the willingness of most citizens to donate organs or other anatomical materials, either while alive (in the case of bone marrow transplant) or after death, is representative of a healthy civil society in general and a high personal responsibility of each citizen in particular. However, we should all understand that the Ukrainian specialists will not conduct kidney or heart transplantations the next day after the draft law adoption. There has been no significant progress in this field for over 20 years: no modern equipment has been purchased, no trainings for transplantation specialists have been organized, no information systems or registers of donors and recipients have been created, no norms and regulations for addressing most issues (in particular, on the quality and safety of procedures and the work of relevant healthcare institutions involved in the transplantation process) have been developed.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine has started making the first steps prior to the draft law adoption: we developed regulations for matters related to the diagnosis of brain death, approved the official instructions for transplant coordinators, and launched the pilot project on modification of the mechanism for funding surgical transplantation of human organs and other anatomical materials. We are also working on the establishment of the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry, the development of training programs for transplant coordinators and the harmonization of current legislation with the EU Directive’s provisions on transplantation of human organs, tissues and cells.

Although the Ministry’s experts say the new law is not perfect and contains conflicting provisions, the development of transplantation in Ukraine is one of the priorities for the Ministry of Health, which is why we continue making the utmost effort to implement the law and to develop a national transplantation system.