Anatoly Makhson, who previously headed the Moscow City Oncology Hospital No. 62 (MGOB No. 62), moved to work at Medsi Group of Companies, where he will develop the oncology direction.
Pavel Bogomolov, medical director of Medsi Group of Companies, reported this to Vademecum. An oncology cluster is being created on the basis of the Medsi Clinical Hospital in Botkinsky Proezd, which will be headed by Anatoly Makhson.
“Yes, I’m leaving, although at first I didn’t want to do it. But I realized that I am now starting to interfere with the hospital [MGB No. 62], so I will distance myself,” Anatoly Makhson told Vademecum. – I absolutely guessed with Kanner [head physician of Moscow City Hospital No. 62], he was the best choice to lead the hospital. I am always ready to help the hospital with advice.” According to Anatoly Makhson, Medsi plans to work in the compulsory medical insurance system and provide high-tech medical care to cancer patients. “With this option, more patients will be able to be treated at the clinic,” he added. Anatoly Makhson does not intend to take the team of doctors from Municipal Hospital No. 62 to Medsi. “We will not lure people away and thereby destroy the hospital. We will cooperate with the 62nd hospital,” he explained to Vademecum.
Oncologist Andrei Sokolov has been appointed chief physician of the Medsi Clinical Hospital in Botkinsky Proezd. “The arrival of such strong specialists with high professional competencies in the Medsi team is a reflection of the active development of the oncology profile in Medsi clinical hospitals, clinical diagnostic centers and primary care clinics. Today we are faced with the task of creating full-cycle medicine and providing our patients with the full range of medical care,” said Pavel Bogomolov. The Medsi press service clarified that the creation of an oncology cluster will allow the group to strengthen the oncology direction and expand the ability to provide a full range of medical services in this profile - from early diagnosis and targeted screening, which allows identifying pathology at an early stage, to providing a course of treatment , including chemotherapy and subsequent rehabilitation. The network of clinics has already created and operates departments of oncology, oncohematology and oncosurgery.
Anatoly Makhson graduated from the medical faculty of the First Moscow State Medical University in 1972. THEM. Sechenov. In 1981 he defended his candidate's dissertation, in 1992 - his doctoral dissertation. After graduating from university, he began working as a surgeon at Moscow City Hospital No. 62, and then headed it. For the last 27 years he has been the chief physician of Municipal City Hospital No. 62. At the beginning of December 2016, the Moscow Department of Health issued order No. 963, which changed the status of city oncology hospital No. 62 from autonomous to budgetary. This was done at the request of the vice-mayor for social issues, Leonid Pechatnikov, who justified the changes by the need to “improve and optimize the activities” of the hospital. Anatoly Makhson came out categorically against this decision, due to the fact that GAUZ has more freedom of maneuver in government procurement of medicines, while GBUZ is content with purchasing DZM at centralized auctions. The confrontation between the Health Department and the head physician then spilled into the public field, after which the dispute about the need to maintain the autonomous status of the hospital turned to the topic of the financial efficiency of Municipal Hospital No. 62 and the Department of Health. The employment contract with Makhson was terminated by the Department of Health in early December 2016, and on March 7, the Krasnogorsk City Court granted the former head physician of the Municipal City Hospital No. 62 a claim for reinstatement.
JSC GC Medsi is one of the largest medical holdings in the Russian commercial medicine market. The network includes 15 clinics in Moscow and the region, three clinical diagnostic centers in Moscow, six regional clinics, two children's clinics, three sanatoriums, an emergency medical service, three wellness centers and 73 medical posts in the regions. Based on the results of work in 2015, the network took second position in the TOP 100 private multidisciplinary clinics of the Vademecum Analytical Center. In 2016, the group’s revenue increased by 14.4% to 9.4 billion rubles. Revenue from direct sales to individuals in 2016 increased by 11%, and from insurance contracts (VHI and compulsory medical insurance) - by 19%. The net loss amounted to 499 million rubles.
After the management team, Medsi began to assemble a medical management team with an eye on well-known doctors in the industry. Thus, in February 2017, the former general director of the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (TRC) of the Ministry of Health, academician Konstantin Lyadov, joined Medsi. He is developing the company’s pilot project - “Medsi Inpatient Cluster”, which unites the clinic on Solyanka, ambulance services, clinics in Shchelkovo, Stupino, Krasnogorsk, Otradnoye, Mitino, a clinical hospital in Otradnoye and the Otradnoye sanatorium.
The former head physician of Hospital No. 62 lost his case to the Department of Health. Now Makhson intends to appeal. Meanwhile, at the clinic, the situation with medicines, according to him, is getting worse.
Anatoly Makhson. Photo: Artem Geodakyan/TASS
The former head physician of Hospital No. 62, Anatoly Makhson, lost his trial to Moscow officials. The Krasnogorsk City Court rejected his claim for reinstatement. The defendant in the lawsuit was the Moscow Department of Health. Anatoly Makhson was fired after publicly criticizing officials for irrational spending of funds on the purchase of medicines.
As Makhson told Business FM, he demanded to be reinstated because, in his opinion, the officials violated the procedure for terminating the employment contract, but the authority did not listen to his arguments. Now the doctor intends to appeal:
Anatoly Makhson: Further plans are to file an appeal. I wasn’t there, but what the lawyer told me was very interesting. The trial began, the prosecutor said that, in general, everything is clear: the decision needs to be canceled. Then the judge announced a 20-minute break in the hearing, asked everyone to leave, and then the prosecutor changed her opinion 180 degrees, no longer hearing anything. We will file an appeal and see.
You also said that if you win in one of the courts, you do not plan to return to the hospital as the head physician. Why?
Anatoly Makhson: The head physician - no. When I said that I went to Pechatnikov, I really went and really said that I wanted to leave. Another thing is that when I asked Kanner (Dmitry Kanner was appointed chief physician of Moscow Oncology Hospital No. 62 - website) to become chief physician, I promised to help him. You know, there is such a position - honorary president. A position where you don’t have much authority and you don’t sign any financial documents. Now, if our struggle is crowned with success, and the hospital is open, I, as promised, will go help. I’ll help him for two or three years, I don’t know how long it will take him to get comfortable. And I couldn’t see it any other way. It has become impossible to work, it’s very hard, I just can’t stand it mentally anymore.
Impossible due to some bureaucratic delays?
Anatoly Makhson: It becomes impossible to maintain the level of care provided. In fact, we had the only hospital where the patients received everything they needed; there was no need to buy anything. We had supplies, medicines, etc. And now it is impossible to provide that level of care: these medicines are not available, there are no consumables, patients are told to buy them.
After his resignation, Makhson wrote statements about inflated prices for medicines by officials to the FSB, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee. In his appeals, he compared the purchase prices of the department and the 62nd hospital and noted that the city authorities overpaid for medicines and medical equipment by almost 218 million rubles. According to
Visiting Komsomolskaya Pravda is the chief oncologist of Moscow, head physician of the famous 62nd Oncology Hospital, Doctor of Medical Sciences Anatoly Makhson [video]
Most people on the planet die from cardiovascular diseases. There are other dangerous diseases. But only over cancer hangs a kind of fate, fatality: they say, if you get sick, it’s the end. You are not a tenant!
Makhson: - This widespread opinion is a mistake. Indeed, currently mortality from malignant tumors is in second place. If we look at the statistics, a little more than half a million people in Russia get cancer every year, and about 290 thousand die from malignant tumors every year. This is ten times more than, say, death from automobile injuries. But now, thanks to advances in medicine, cancer has ceased to be a fatal disease. Healing largely depends on the stage of the disease. Almost any tumor, if detected at an early stage, then we can cure 90-91, up to 98%.
Let's take breast cancer. When the tumor is less than a centimeter, we cure up to 98%. If it’s the second stage, then it will be 70%, maybe a little more. Third - good if 50%. But there are completely different costs and treatment time. And the fourth - 18% healing. Therefore, the main thing is to detect cancer in the early stages. And it depends only on people.
After 45 years, every two years in Moscow, every woman can have a mammogram, which makes it possible to detect a tumor at an early stage. We discovered that a small operation was enough, and 91% recovered, we added drug treatment, and there we can cure up to 95-98%. True, pancreatic cancer has worse results, but it is also much less common.
What is the problem of fatality? If a person dies of cancer, then everyone knows the reason.
- The same media will add - “died of an incurable disease.”
But almost no one knows those whom we cured of cancer. Because a person, having contracted a malignant tumor, does not talk about it. What's happening abroad? Even famous people, politicians, artists admit: yes, I had cancer, I was treated. And when others see that he has been living and working actively for 5-10 years, the atmosphere is completely different.
- De Niro had prostate surgery, Bush Jr. had a tumor removed from his face.
I was in Japan, where a society was created for the early detection of cancer. The doctor says: 10 years ago I was diagnosed with a stomach tumor, it was removed, I am working. And no one hides it there. Therefore, there is no such fatality as we have.
- Writer Daria Dontsova - Your patient, Anatoly Nakhimovich?
Our. She started treatment in 1989. At that time I was still the head of the department at Hospital No. 62. She was in our department. 23 years have passed!
And Dontsova did not hide the fact that she had cancer. Like Kobzon. In the spring of 2004, the singer admitted to Komsomolskaya Pravda: “The tumor was malignant, but now I’m healthy!” We then put this phrase on the cover... In an interview, Joseph Davydovich told me in detail about his illness, how he fought it.
There are many of these! There is a patient whom my father operated on in 1976. He had sarcoma of the femur. The patient's leg was saved and he is walking. He has lived in Greece for a long time, but periodically comes to see us and get checked. Unfortunately, few people know about such healed long-livers. Hence, I repeat, the fatality of the diagnosis is cancer.
- So it sounds like a sentence.
The second common mistake among people: doctors discover a tumor in a patient, offer treatment, but he refuses. Prefers to go to a healer. It's been going for a year and a half. The tumor develops to stage 4. He returns to the doctor. But often medicine is already powerless in such advanced cases.
This is the tragedy of the popular artist Yan Arlazorov. I was categorically afraid to go to the doctor, I preferred a healer, fasting. Although the same Kobzon persuaded me to turn to official medicine. When Arlazorov made his decision, it was too late.
And I can give many such sad examples. Do you understand what's going on? You can do nothing with a malignant tumor and live for 2-3 years. This is what healers use. They tell relatives: “But I kept the patient for 1.5 years!” In fact, they are simply moving the first stage into the third or fourth stage. Depriving the patient of a chance for salvation. How it happened to Yan Arlazorov. And if a person comes to the hospital from the very beginning, then simple treatment is enough for him to get better and be healthy.
- That's why you need to go to the doctor!
We need to go and do medical examinations. And if you are diagnosed with a tumor, you don’t need to rely on healers. I have not seen a single real healer who would help our patients. Although I don’t deny that they can exist. But, unfortunately, the majority are charlatans who make a lot of money out of trouble.
- You recently became the chief oncologist of the capital...
Six months ago.
And they have already begun a drastic reorganization of the Moscow oncology service. There are rumors, even panicky ones. What's really going on?
In the USSR, back in 1946, the most effective system for the treatment and monitoring of oncological diseases was created. Dispensary. When a patient is examined and treated inpatiently in one institution. A tumor was discovered and then treated. If necessary, he continues outpatient treatment at the same dispensary. Problems arise - he is admitted to the hospital. And in Russia this system operates everywhere except Moscow. Why? Because there is no dispensary that could provide treatment in a metropolis with 12 million inhabitants. Our specialized hospital No. 62, created in 1959, cannot accept everyone either. That’s why such an insane system has developed: 21 oncology departments in clinics in the capital, where there is no modern equipment or treatment capabilities. The first stage of the reorganization of the system is the connection of the 2nd dispensary with the 62nd hospital. This is almost 2 million inhabitants, 2 districts - Northern and Northwestern. Now this dispensary has become the outpatient department of the 62nd hospital. Understand, you cannot make a qualified institution out of a dispensary where there is practically nothing modern. There is no CT scanner, normal x-ray, equipment, etc.
And the patients assigned here are forced to look for themselves where in Moscow they can get the same computed tomography and other tests.
No electronic medical history! So we came and were faced with the fact that we cannot get accurate data on how many patients receive chemotherapy, at what stages, nothing is clear. At the same time, the dispensary is being reorganized and equipped. Now this is the outpatient department of the 62nd hospital. In March-April, a computed tomograph and modern ultrasound machines should be installed there; we will create day hospitals for urology, chemotherapy, and a hospital for head and neck diseases. There's a lot more planned. I think that by the end of the year we will cope with this. What should happen as a result? The patient comes here and is completely examined here in 7-10 days. When it becomes clear how to treat him, the patient is automatically put on a waiting list at the 62nd clinic. He came, we treated him, operated on him, performed the necessary procedures. We prescribe treatment and medications at the clinic (formerly the 2nd dispensary). Dispensary observation takes place there. Some problems have arisen - he must come to the 62nd hospital. And now there is a person who is responsible for examination, clinical observation and treatment of patients in at least two districts of Moscow. This is almost 2 million inhabitants. This is the chief physician of the 62nd hospital.
- That is, you, Doctor Makhson?
Yes. We will create the same units in all other districts of the capital. They will be equipped with the same type.
- And the same Dr. Makhson will supervise everything, already as the chief oncologist of the capital?
Absolutely right. This was the initiative of the new head of the Moscow Department of Health, Leonid Mikhailovich Pechatnikov. He said correctly, a clinic cannot exist separately from a hospital, they must be united. Because one goal is to diagnose, cure, and then treat on an outpatient basis. And as a result, there should be a single electronic database and register. And all these databases must transfer data to this register uniformly. Then we will know how many patients we have, what stages they have, what medications they need. It will be possible to plan normally the purchase of drugs for cancer patients in Moscow.
- Now the problem of drugs is very acute!
Let's try to solve it. The main thing is that the cancer patient receives all the necessary help in one place! My task, I believe, as the chief oncologist, is to make sure that in each district of the capital the oncology center is the same in terms of equipment, qualifications of doctors and staff, and attitude towards patients. Because now many people want to go to ’62. But we can’t take all of Moscow! This task is much more difficult. Because many institutions are in dire condition, unlike us. But now a lot of money has been allocated; the management of the department, one might say, has turned its face to oncology. I don’t promise that this will happen in a year, but I think that in 2-3 years we must cope in order to equalize the level of oncological care in Moscow, to equip everyone equally.
- Yes, difficult tasks lie ahead of you.
Not easy. But opportunities appeared. I came to the 62nd Oncology Hospital in 1972, and since 1990 I have been the chief physician here. And there have not been such financial investments, such opportunities for equipment and repairs in all these 40 years. I won’t say that there are no problems, but there have never been such opportunities to improve the city’s oncology service. Thanks, of course, to the new mayor, the new head of the department, everything has changed. For example, we had a problem with the radiology service. I have been writing for years that we need to change technology. This year we receive three linear accelerators, three gamma devices, and many other modern equipment. This is all expensive equipment. And this year the entire radiological service of the city will be re-equipped. This hasn't been done for many years. We still have devices from 1990 and 1989. They don’t last that long, and we work on such equipment. Now everything will change. So we are optimistic about the future of Moscow oncology.
Anatoly Nakhimovich, the press usually remembers oncologists on February 4, International Cancer Day. Let’s conduct a “Direct Line” with Komsomolskaya Pravda readers, our radio listeners, and television viewers. You see, in Komsomolskaya Pravda our opportunities are also expanding! There will probably be a lot of questions for you. And not only from Muscovites.
I'm ready. This is very important - with the help of Komsomolskaya Pravda, to convey to people that, firstly, cancer is not hopeless, secondly, it is very important to come to the doctor on time and, thirdly, there is no need to go to healers. Because you will waste money and waste time. Let's talk specifically about the modernization of oncology services in Moscow.
Chief oncologist of Moscow: Cancer has ceased to be a fatal disease
For the New Year, I gave myself a gift - a quadcopter with a video camera. Well, I think: it’s time to test the device in action, take pictures of the beautiful Istra forest, where Cancer Hospital No. 62 is located.
The adventures began as soon as a local resident approached me. The conversation went something like this:
What are you doing?
- Yes, I’m photographing your beauty. What places!
- Why take it off, the forest is the same everywhere. You'd better rent our rich man's house.
- What is this?
- Well, the director of the hospital, there are no other rich people here.
Even then I could not imagine that the story would become a post about how a unique hospital became the domain of a single chief physician. I was unable to get close to the house; I was barked at by two very large shepherd dogs. Well, okay, I’m not a real intelligence officer, I decided not to risk it. But we managed to stop the unscrupulous active deforestation, which, according to documents on the fence, is being carried out by a certain “Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Oncology” (OPRO). The main activity of the company (registered at the address of cancer hospital No. 62) is logging! Agree a little strange...
Please note: the red line on the map indicates a section of forest that has already begun to be cut down for a new cottage community.
According to local residents, in order to obtain permission to cut down, someone first introduced a bark beetle into the forest. I don't think it's hard to guess who did it...
Well what can I say, friends? I googled it on the Internet and it turned out that Anatoly Nakhimovich Makhson and his close relatives have perceived City Oncology Hospital No. 62 as their patrimony since the 90s.
I’ll continue the investigation: where are Anatoly Nakhimovich and his beloved wife registered and living? The answer will be given by any site with databases of Muscovites. For example, this http://nomerorg.com/moskva/
If you type in Makhson Anatoly (you can try it yourself), we will see that a person with such initials is registered in an apartment in the village of Istra and in a cottage in the village of Stepanovskoye (next to the territory of hospital No. 62). Now let’s look at where Anatoly Nakhimovich’s wife officially lives?
The address is even more interesting: she lives in the “village of Gorbolnitsa No. 62.” Just a song! Everything around is collective farm, everything around is mine)
What is remarkable about the territory of hospital No. 62, the reader will ask me, why live there? I will be happy to answer!
The cancer hospital is located on the territory of an old noble estate, built in the 17th century and belonging to the Dolgoruky family. Machson himself actively praises the environmental advantages of its location in his interviews: “In recent years, the unique oncology hospital has begun to look more like a sanatorium in appearance. This is an entire architectural ensemble that combines traditional classical style and modern high-tech. I never tire of admiring the forest park and the healing air on the territory.”
In general, almost every material about Makhson reveals in one way or another his passion “for the unique architectural ensemble of the 17th century.”
“Almost all of Anatoly Nakhimovich’s childhood is connected with Moscow Hospital No. 62, on the territory of which his family settled”- from here http://oncodome.narod.ru/Makhson/Makhson_2009.htm
And here Makhson himself speaks very well and vividly about family ties: “And we encourage family ties. My parents worked here. My wife Valyusha works here - she is in charge of computed tomography. Yes, Misha is the son of my sister, but he is a very good surgeon and computer expert. My deputy, a unique oncologist, Professor Nikolai Pavlovich Zabazny, has a daughter, son-in-law, and nephew working at the hospital. Is this bad?
It’s bad, Anatoly Nakhimovich, very bad, especially when all these family ties develop into a clan!
It turns out that with the permission of chief physician Antalya Mahson, residential cottages were built on the territory of the city oncology hospital No. 62, which may also have become the property of “daughters, sons-in-law, nephews.” They are marked with red rectangles on the map.
Now the entire hospital complex is a whole sanatorium-resort town with its own boiler house, treatment facilities, three apartment buildings where people close to the hospital administration live... Almost communism reigns here - they pay for electricity according to the tariffs of the medical institution. Complex, expensive and modern infrastructure complex, surrounded by beautiful forest. For which ordinary Muscovites paid (and continue to pay)! How can you not imagine yourself as the King of the Hill?
What surprises me is that everyone knows about everything, but the chief doctor of City Hospital 62 refuses to leave his post and writes denunciations against the leadership of the Moscow Health Department to the FSB and the Investigative Committee. Agree, the situation is not ordinary!
P.S. When this story just began, I had no idea what could be answered by Machson’s defenders, grateful patients, etc., who want him to run the hospital for life, and then hand over the reins to inheritance. The answer was suggested to me by one of the Istra residents: “Maybe, of course, he is a doctor from God, but he is also a decent bark beetle!”
I suggest that at least someone take an interest in these miracles in and around the hospital and answer a number of questions:
1. Who lives on the territory in their own houses and on what basis?
2. Who pays for utilities and at what rates?
3. What did Makhson officially declare of his income as the head of a large institution?
4. Why is there no publicly available information about the hospital’s procurement activities? From whom does the hospital buy expensive medicines and other materials?
5. Or maybe Makhson is just a puppet in someone’s big game? And with his hands does a larger predatory fish “wage a fair fight”?
By the way, leave your insights in the comments! Although I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I think pharma may be involved here, and even big politics!
Prevention
Anatoly Makhson: “I am a supporter of annual preventive visits to the oncologist”
Anatoly Makhson, who previously headed the Moscow City Oncology Hospital No. 62, is creating an oncology service in the Medsi network of private clinics. The main idea is extensive cancer screening and treatment of identified cancer cases using funds from the state compulsory medical insurance system.
In the photo: Anatoly Makhson
You were invited to Medsi to create an oncology cluster. What does this concept include?
In this case, we call a cluster the combination of an outpatient department and a hospital into a common system. To begin with, the program included six Moscow clinics and a hospital based at the Moscow Medsi Clinical Hospital in Botkinsky Proezd, which we will reorient to providing specialized oncological care.
This is no easy task for a private healthcare company. How much medical care can you provide?
At the first stage, the outpatient department will be able to conduct 20-30 thousand complex diagnostic programs per year. The hospital capacity is 140 beds. Both surgical and therapeutic techniques are presented at the Medsi Clinical Hospital in Botkinsky Proezd. Now we have five operating rooms and a chemotherapy department. At the Medsi hospital on Pyatnitskoye Highway there is a hybrid operating room in which we can perform complex types of treatment, such as chemoembolization of tumors. Today we can provide almost the entire volume of oncological care at our own bases. The only exception is the direction of radiology - there are plans to build our own building on Pyatnitskoye Highway. There will be a department of radioisotope diagnostic and treatment methods and two linear accelerators. For now, we have an agreement with the Moscow Oncology Research Institute named after. P. A. Herzen, our patients undergo radiotherapy there.
At the time of diagnosis, many are at a loss, not knowing what to do. What actions should be taken by a person who would like to receive treatment in a private clinic as part of compulsory medical insurance? How do patients get to you for treatment?
Everything is very simple: we have our own clinic, any resident of Russia can go to it, we provide medical care to everyone. After the patient comes to the clinic, if there is an indication, the doctor writes a referral for hospitalization in a hospital, and then we provide treatment. What does 223-FZ say? The patient has the right to choose any medical institution that provides services within the compulsory medical insurance system. We work in this system.
That is, Medsi treats patients under compulsory medical insurance?
As part of the compulsory medical insurance program, Medsi provides specialized and high-tech medical care in inpatient settings. It is free for patients.
In Russia, primary diagnosis of tumors in outpatient settings is far from ideal. How can a patient understand that specialized cancer care is required? Are there any symptoms to watch out for?
There is no need to look for symptoms; cancer can manifest itself completely unpredictably or not be detected at all for the time being. For early detection of signs of the development of malignant tumors, so-called targeted screening diagnostic programs are used - examination of healthy people of a certain group in order to identify a malignant tumor at an early stage. They need to be taken regularly at a certain time in a person’s life. Such programs allow problems to be identified early, when they can be treated.
What specific targeted screening programs are you running?
It makes no sense to endlessly look for signs of any tumor growth in everyone. Rare types of tumors should be targeted only in those who have a predisposition to them (hereditary or due to characteristics of professional activity). Screening is aimed at early diagnosis of the most common oncological pathologies. In men - cancer of the lung, stomach, colon, skin, kidney, prostate. Modern medical imaging methods take the first place in screening: in the case of the lungs, this is low-dose computed tomography of the chest organs, in other cases, ultrasound methods. Modern software in CT installations, such as the EVOEye and DoseRight algorithms, allows you to automatically control radiation exposure, achieving better quality with a reduced radiation dose. Expert-class ultrasound, in turn, makes visible even minor changes in the abdominal cavity and pelvic area, when examining the prostate gland, for example. To this are added endoscopic techniques: gastro- and colonoscopy for examining the gastrointestinal tract. For women, screening for breast cancer and other organs of the reproductive system comes first. After age 40, we recommend having a mammogram every year. There are discussions around the world regarding the frequency of preventive visits to a mammologist: once a year or every two. I'm a big fan of annual programs. Modern digital mammographs have a safe level of radiation comparable to household radiation exposure, while the spatial resolution of such systems is 50 microns. That is, the chances of early detection of tumor growth increase many times over. I would like to remind you that the cure rate of breast cancer when diagnosed in the initial stages reaches more than 90%.
Anastasia Kulagina,
Head of Mammography, Philips:
Digital technologies have a number of significant and practically significant advantages. With the high resolution of modern digital mammographs, it is possible to achieve a dramatic, more than 2-fold, dose reduction compared to film systems. It is also important that digital technologies make it possible to optimize the workflow, because now there is no need to develop film or digitize a cassette, which means you can spend more time with the patient.
Primary care doctors often prescribe studies of the level of so-called tumor markers in the blood plasma. Do you perform similar tests?
Tumor markers are not suitable for primary diagnosis. Their absence in the blood does not mean the absence of tumor growth. Conversely, elevated levels do not at all indicate the presence of a tumor process. The scope of application of such diagnostics is monitoring the effectiveness of therapy for an already established diagnosis. The only marker used in screening is PSA, a prostate-specific antigen that can indicate the development of prostate cancer. But its widespread use, in my opinion, is excessive. The professional community has been discussing for several years the so-called overdiagnosis (when the diagnosis of cancer is made incorrectly) when using PSA. There must be a balanced clinical approach to everything.
How long, in your opinion, will it take to create a fully functioning oncology service in a private clinic?
We're in no hurry. The main thing is quality. Although in the future, our capacity (up to 1.2 million unique patients per year throughout the Russian Federation) allows us to create a service, the results of which can be assessed on a national scale.
