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Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has become a center for the most advanced method of diagnostics – television – through the efforts of local physician Anatoly Chubukov and his American partners.

Chubukov, head of the Doctors’ Society for the International Exchange of Experience and Information, is drawing on the expertise of a Seattle hospital in treating patients. And it’s being done with the help of TV cameras.

“The future belongs to the television diagnostics,” Chubukov said.

Chubukov has organized two “TV bridges” with his colleagues at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. Earlier, he had e-mailed them descriptions of patients’ diseases. During the TV-bridge session, the experts exchanged recommendations.

Although sponsors had to cover the cost, Chubukov said it is cheaper to do consultations via TV than to go abroad to large medical centers. He plans to unite all the Sakhalin hospitals into one network, so that many patients can save money on traveling.

If the same cameras and software are placed in all of Sakhalin Oblast hospitals, as Chubukov hopes will happen, cancer patients in Okha could receive the help of doctors in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

The term “television diagnostics” is not widely used. However, for the Russian health care system, which covers a vast territory, it is very important:

Thanks to the wide network of consultants, the cost of treatment decrease and the new methods of treatment are implemented faster, doctors say

Television diagnostics have already been used in a variety of cases. Doctors in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk consulted Seattle doctors in a session with a girl with muscular dystrophy.

Working with translators in both Sakhalin and Seattle, Russian doctors manipulated her arms and legs and discussed her problems with their colleagues.

In another case, Sakhalin doctors consulted neurosurgeons at Virginia Mason regarding a teenager with a brain tumor. The Seattle doctors, who had reviewed all the medical records by email, were able to “examine” the boy with the help of their Russian colleagues.

Cooperation with the Virginia Center started two years ago, when teenager Roman Afanasiev lost both his arms in an accident. Knowing that it is hard to manufacture proper artificial limbs in Russia, the oblast administration clinic appealed to Chubukov’s society. Chubukov consulted the center and the latter got in touch with a company making artificial limbs.

The company designed prosthetic arms for the boy.

He also underwent physical therapy in Seattle, and even won a computer in a contest.

Besides Roman, nine Sakhalin residents have gotten help from the American doctors.

The television diagnostics started only last year. Hal Rilling, an American Peace Corps representative, helped the society buy professional medical literature for $8,000. He also helped to install computers and established connections with American doctors. Last year, Virginia Mason’s representatives visited Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to set the computer programs to provide connection with their center.

Keith Lundberg, John Kirkpatrick and John Eusek got acquainted with the local doctors and became very optimistic about the cooperation.

Not everyone agrees with the diagnosis of the doctors overseas. When the program first started, Russian and American doctors could only communicate by e-mail. A Russian dentist disagreed with the Americans’ diagnosis, and prescribed her own plan of treatment, Chubukov said. In such cases, Seattle doctors defer to their colleagues.