Duration: 01.08.2022 – 31.07.2024

Partner country: Ukraine

Partner institutions:

• Ukrainian Ministry of Health
• Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Robert Koch Institute

Challenges addressed by the project

The FUTURE International UKR project is the RKI's response to Ukraine's acute need for clinical management support on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG).

Through national and international projects during the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine was established as a reactive crisis intervention tool. Previous evaluations of clinical management of critically ill individuals have shown an increase in the likelihood of survival if the intensive care therapy of patients was supported by telemedicine. Due to the war, Ukraine has a considerable need for medical expertise to provide acute care for severely injured and patients with complecatied illnesses. However, it is difficult to send appropriate personnel to Ukraine in the short or medium-long periods given the existing security situation. In this case, the use of telemedicine is extremely useful, as this technology allows highly specialized expertise from Germany to be contacted through specified personnel that is available 24/7 anytime.

Objectives

The object of the project is to strengthen the quality of intensive care treatment through specific expertise in selected clinics in the Ukraine. In particular, the knowledge of the treating physicians in the Ukraine regarding management and treatment of intensive care patients, e.g. in case of complex surgical issues or in the area of wound management in case of complex infections, is to be improved. To this end in addition to the telemedical ward rounds teaching content via video platform on intensive care, infectious disease, and traumatological and pediatric topics is also being established. Another goal is to gain insight into complex and unusual intensive care and infectious disease patterns and thus obtain valuable information for RKI recommendations on clinical management.

The achievement of the objectives will be measured by indicators. These include the number of telemedicine consultations/complex case discussions, the number of physicians who were consulted, the results of a survey of telemedicine users and an evaluation of the use of the video platform.

Overview of activities

Establishment of telemedicine consultations:

In response to the war in Ukraine, the FUTURE INTERNATIONAL UKR project provides telemedicine consultations on intensive care topics to selected hospitals with intensive care departments, as well as other medical disciplines as needed.
The telemedical rounds are conducted weekly with the Ukrainian physicians on site together with the telemedicine team of the Charité, consisting of experts in intensive care medicine and other disciplines, such as infectious diseases, traumatology and pediatrics. The focus of the consultation is on intensive care cases with specific surgery instructions as well as management of complex infections such as MRE wound infections. The telemedicine specialists of the Charité accompany the medical team on site via a mobile robot; if necessary, other medical disciplines can be called in digitally at any time.

Specialist exchange:
Through regular professional exchange with various clinical experts and the RKI, including on disease courses that have been rare and unusual in Germany to date, regarding appropriate recommendation on clinical management, therapy or infection prevention and control in Germany can be adapted if necessary, including on disease courses that are rare and unusual within Germany at time of writing.

Development of an e-learning offer:
The project is also developing educational content for the Ukrainian medical community. This is intended to address knowledge gaps that have been identified in the context of telemedicine support. The use of a novel e-learning module, which overcomes the problem of a potential language barrier through the use of AI, is a useful addition. The goal is to create high quality medical content and create an availability of expert knowledge in the broad Ukrainian medical community. If the application is practical, it can be adapted to other countries and crises.