Valikhovskiy lane, 2, Odessa, Ukraine
Eng
Eng
Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of General Dentistry Schneider Stanislav Arkadiiovych
Your department is relatively young. How does it differ from other dentistry departments?
Our department was established in 1983 at the Faculty of Advanced Training of Physicians of Odessa Medical Institute named after M.I. Pirogov, and now – Odessa National Medical University. For the first nine years, the department was headed by one of the luminaries of Odessa surgical dentistry, Professor Vasyl Ivanovych Vakulenko, thanks to whom a significant contribution was made to domestic medicine in the surgical restoration of the palate with the use of bone grafts in congenital malformations.
The difference of the department is that we provide postgraduate education of dentists. The fact is that one of the main tasks of medical science and practical health care is to improve the quality of medical care. A special role in this is given to institutions and structures of postgraduate education. Internship is the first level of improving the practical training of specialists, their ability to independent medical activity.
Our experience confirms that the organization of practical training of interns needs special attention, because graduates of higher educational institutions, having a sufficient theoretical basis, experience a shortage of practical skills in medicine.
In this regard, the staff of the department is constantly working on the formation of such a style of teaching, the essence of which is to intensify the work of students, the development of clinical thinking, motivation to master practical skills, ability to make decisions, ability to formulate a diagnosis. We consider it important to form in dentists interns the ability to be productive, when all the necessary medical diagnostic and therapeutic manipulations are performed by analogy with what was learned in theoretical classes, but with the necessary changes in each new situation at the patient’s chair. Individualization of training is expressed in the fact that each teacher in small groups (5-6 people) interns teaches them the basics of medical thinking, going through all stages of the treatment and diagnostic process with its difficulties and errors directly on the example of a particular patient in practice.
Solving diagnostic and treatment problems, problem situations, speeches at clinical conferences provide their high professional training. This is the difference between our department and other theoretical dental departments.
In addition, the department now conducts cycles of specialization and internships in the following specialties: dentistry, surgical dentistry, orthopedic dentistry, therapeutic dentistry, pediatric dentistry and orthodontics. Cycles of thematic improvement for dentists are held regularly.
How many years have you headed the department? What has changed on it during your leadership? What are the main areas of work? What are the achievements?
I have been heading the department for only seven years, since 2013. It seems to me that in this difficult economic time we have achieved significant success. The staff of the department is preserved, today 4 doctors of sciences, 2 professors, 28 candidates of sciences, 7 associate professors work at the department.
The department provides postgraduate education of dentists not only in the city of Odessa, but also in three regions of Ukraine, namely Odessa, Mykolaiv and Kherson.
It so happened that since the establishment of the department it was headed mainly by dental surgeons, and the main scientific direction of the department for many years was a comprehensive treatment of congenital and acquired deformities of the jaws and dentition.
In recent years, we have significantly expanded the range of scientific research, the main areas of work of the department are the development and improvement of medical technologies, prevention and treatment of the most common dental diseases.
During my leadership at the department two research works have been successfully performed on: “Comprehensive rehabilitation of patients after reconstructive surgery on the bones of the facial skull” and “Features of diagnosis and clinical course of periodontal disease and oral mucosa in young people, modern methods of their prevention and treatment “.
A new research work on improving the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the oral mucosa in people with chronic somatic diseases is currently underway.
Over the last seven years, 6 monographs, 3 textbooks, 292 articles (of which 90 – abroad), 143 theses (7 – abroad) have been published. Employees of the department have made 112 reports at conferences of various levels.
Under my supervision for the last seven years 6 doctoral and 15 candidate dissertations have been prepared and defended.
Do you have many clinical bases? Are they all located in the University Clinic?
At present, the department has the following main clinical bases of the full-time part of the internship:
Correspondence bases of the Department of General Dentistry are all licensed clinics that have entered into an agreement with the Odessa National Medical University.
And this is a great achievement of the leadership of Odessa Medical University, because, as Hippocrates said, a doctor must have thirst for new knowledge, which must be obtained at the bedside.
After all, the task of the intern is to be able to assess the severity of the patient’s condition, to see the features of the clinical course of the disease in its development, to understand how it is affected by comorbidities, to formulate the basic diagnosis of a particular patient.
Due to the favorable psychological atmosphere, friendly attitude to interns, creative analysis of clinical situations we manage to train specialists, respecting their opinion, taking into account their reasoning, try to thoroughly discuss complex and problematic with them, from a diagnostic point of view, developing the basics of clinical thinking in dental interns.
Do you approve of simulation training?
Undoubtedly. The fact is that simulation training is aimed at developing and improving students’ wide range of practical competencies without the risk of harm to the patient.
Important advantages of simulation technologies for training future dentists are:
1) instilling practical skills in students and residents with the inability to theoretically and practically harm the patient on the background of a visual objective assessment of the achieved level of training of each specialist;
2) involvement of each student and resident in training in an environment as close as possible to real clinical practice;
3) formation of accessible psychological comfort in the implementation of manual skills and individual responsibility of each student for the result of certain medical dental manipulations, with the possibility of step-by-step analysis of errors, their detailing and prevention of their occurrence in the future;
4) the opportunity to get acquainted with the practical implementation of technically difficult and / or painful for the patient practical medical dental manipulations at the preclinical stage of their implementation by a specialist, which together allows to reduce stress on the student and teach him the fundamental ethical principles of medicine;
5) the ability to control the process due to the consistent step-by-step ability to repeat the practice of a manual dental skill;
6) an unlimited number of probable repetitions of the trained dental experience, with the possibility of continuous improvement of the skill, using the method of working on errors.
Simulation training has enormous opportunities to increase not only the level of practical training of medical staff, but also the safety of medical care, when from the beginning of training emphasis is placed on safety factors (compliance with established rules, algorithms, patient management protocols, purposeful interaction between medical staff and with the patient).
It is obvious that the training of specialists responsible for human life and health in the modern world simply cannot take place without the most important simulation component.
It is very nice and very important that in 2016 our university acquired a modern dental simulator Simodont Dental Trainer worth almost 15 million hryvnias, which can track students’ actions in real time and set them tasks using a rich database of virtual patients and teeth with individual features.
How does ONMedU differ from other medical universities of the country?
Odessa National Medical University is one of the leading medical universities in Ukraine with its 120-year history and outstanding scientific achievements.
In conditions of increasing competition in the market of educational services, the university is increasingly introducing innovative approaches to the educational process and research, establishing cooperation with foreign partners, the world scientific community, increasing its participation in educational and research programs.
One of the first in the country, our university became a member of the International and European Associations of Universities. In 2001 it was accepted as a member of the International Scientific Committee of UNESCO. The university has close ties with the world’s leading universities and research centers in the United States, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Greece and so on.
The University was the first in Ukraine to start training specialists for foreign countries in English, thanks to which first-year students integrated into the international medical community become in-demand specialists in America, European countries and Asia. Today the university provides quality educational services to students from 53 countries.
Our university is a pioneer in competence training, when students learn to treat not by textbook, but by robotic simulators that completely simulate the patient.
Thanks to the efforts of the management of Odessa Medical University on its basis in January 2014 was established the first in Ukraine Educational and Innovative Center for Practical Training of Physicians, equipped with the latest equipment, which has no analogues in the country. The training uses such techniques as modeling of different levels of complexity, hybrid simulation, “standardized patient” and so on. The center coordinates its work with the world’s leading centers of simulation training technologies and rightfully claims the status of a base for improving the skills, qualifications and retraining of doctors from all regions of Ukraine. The center is a multidisciplinary (obstetrics and gynecology, surgery, neonatology, anesthesiology, pediatrics, pulmonology, endoscopy, cardiology, emergency medicine, ophthalmology, etc.), multidisciplinary and high-tech institution for various professions, the purpose of which is highly practical health care.
Fundamental theoretical knowledge and practice in the innovative simulation center make our university one of the flagships of higher education in Ukraine.
In addition, Odessa Medical University is my alma mater, to which I have dedicated 30 years of my life.
Due to quarantine, teaching students has become unconventional. How do you manage to cope with the difficult situation?
Distance learning in the training of doctors-interns is an innovative organization of the educational process, which is implemented in a specific pedagogical system on the principle of independent training of a doctor and interactive interaction between the teacher and the intern.
The effectiveness of distance learning at the postgraduate stage of medical education depends on the following factors: effective interaction between the teacher and the doctor; established active feedback; the quality of preliminary design of the distance education process and ways to manage it; developed didactic materials.
The interactive capabilities of information delivery systems provide the opportunity to establish and even stimulate feedback, provide dialogue and ongoing support, which is not possible in most traditional learning systems.
I want to note that our department has coped well with the non-traditional training of cadets, introduced an effective form of distance learning and is fully prepared for the new academic year.
You are an honored worker of science and technology of Ukraine, Laureate of the State Prize, awarded a number of government awards. Tell us about your scientific path.
My career in dentistry began in 1986. After graduating from Odessa Medical College №1 with honors, I worked as a dental technician at the Odessa Regional Dental Clinic until 1990. After graduation from Odessa State Medical University in 1995, during a 2-year internship, the first steps of scientific work were made, which resulted in 2002 in a PhD thesis on “Pathophysiological mechanisms of atrophy of alveolar processes of different origins in rats of different ages.” I began working on my doctoral dissertation on the pathogenetic mechanisms of radiation-induced pathomorphosis of chronic periodontitis and successfully defended it in 2012. In the following years I was awarded the academic title of professor and the honorary title of “Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine.”
For the first time in 50 years, the State Prize Committee of Ukraine in the field of science and technology awarded the State Prize for scientific work in the field of dentistry. I would like to emphasize that, in addition to me, the winner of the State Prize was also the head of the department of our university – Professor Denga Oksana Vasylivna.
The authors conducted a comprehensive study of epidemiological indicators of oral health and dental diseases in the population of different regions of Ukraine and created a bank of dental morbidity on the background of somatic pathology, various biogeochemical features and anthropogenic load of the population to justify and implement high-tech methods of specialized dental care. In the experiment and the clinic new mechanisms of pathogenesis of the main dental diseases were revealed, experimental models of periodontal pathology were developed. Effective biologically substantiated methods of reconstructive and restorative operations on the frontal part of the human skull, modern dental implantation in Ukraine, taking into account the metabolism and regenerative potential of bone tissue were developed. New materials with biologically active action for surgical treatment of traumatic fractures and bone defects were offered. The modern scheme of diagnostics of dental anomalies for optimization of orthodontic treatment was developed. The scientifically based National Program for the Prevention of Major Dental Diseases improves the health of the oral cavity and the body in general, reduces the cost of the dental care system in Ukraine and improves the quality of life.
How do you assess the rectorship of Valerii Mykolaiovych Zaporozhan?
Definitely positive. Academician Valerii Mykolaiovych Zaporozhan is the founder and leader of a fruitful scientific school, the achievements of which are well known to domestic and foreign specialists. He is an extremely talented and energetic man. Valerii Mykolaiovych ‘s scientific works are a significant contribution to the development of domestic and world medicine, genetics and molecular biology.
In addition, he is a talented organizer of higher medical school. He was the head of the Odessa National Medical University for about 25 years, and is one of the initiators and organizers of the health care reform and training of doctors in Ukraine.
What are your plans for this academic year?
To carry out the planned, to complete the begun, to define new purposes.
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