Program provides precious resource to Ukrainian physicians and their patients

Ukraine’s healthcare professionals routinely face extraordinary challenges: a steady stream of severely wounded and traumatized patients; regular bombings; shortages of personnel and resources; and fears for their own and their loved ones’ safety.

They do their best for the soldiers and civilians in their care, yet they strive to learn and do more. With the war making medical education extremely difficult, Doctors United for Ukraine (an organization of Yale faculty, staff and alumni), Yale New Haven Health and Yale School of Medicine (YSM) have stepped in to help provide this precious resource. Since 2023, 21 Ukrainian physicians from different specialties have visited YNHHS hospitals and YSM for monthlong observerships, learning from and sharing their knowledge with their American colleagues.

On Oct. 31, the most recent observership participants joined in a panel discussion, “High Risk Obstetrics, Pain and Mental Health Management in a Warzone: Collaborations between Yale and Ukrainian Physicians.” The eight Ukrainian psychiatrists, anesthesiologists and obstetrician/gynecologists emphasized how war has made it even more critical for specialists to collaborate in caring for soldiers and civilians.

Panelists said learnings from the observership will support their efforts to build a pain management system in Ukraine. With photos and stories, they illustrated why this system is so desperately needed. People with amputations – sometimes of multiple limbs – face acute and chronic pain that can lead to mental health disorders and for some, substance use disorder. And it’s not only soldiers who suffer.

“You’ll see whole families (with members) who have lost part of a limb,” said anesthesiologist Roman Smolynets, MD.

Sleep disorders are also common among soldiers and civilians – due to anxiety and depression and the fact that many attacks occur at night. Air raid sirens are common.

“People are scared to take sleep medication” because they might need to take shelter, said psychiatrist Olena Nikolenko, MD, PhD.

The Ob/Gyn physicians said they routinely deal with high-risk pregnancies and have seen an increase in pre-term births. With millions of people having fled Ukraine, “each and every baby matters to us,” said Andrii Berbets, MD, PhD, OB/GYN.

During a Q and A, an audience member asked how the physicians stay motivated – not just to survive, but to grow.

“Our soldiers fight for us – for our lives, for our dignity,” replied anesthesiologist Valeriia Pokhvalonna, MD. “We should fight for their lives in our hospitals.”