Focusing collaborative endeavors on prosthetics, rehabilitation
The Ukrainian Peace Council and the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI) are expanding their horizons and starting to cooperate in a prosthetics and rehabilitation project with Northwell Health, the U.S. largest healthcare provider within New York state. The meeting, which took place at KPI on the initiative of Volodymyr Yurchenko, head of the Ukrainian Peace Council's youth wing, was also attended by representatives from several NGOs that constantly support Ukraine.
Mykhailo Zgurovsky, Head of the Ukrainian Peace Council and KPI Rector, thanked the guests for their invaluable assistance extended to Ukraine, which is estimated at dozens of ambulances for our army and millions of dollars.
Briefly highlighting KPI's achievements over its 125-year history, he pointed out that the University, the Ukrainian Peace Council, and the Environmental Safety Council also provide comprehensive assistance to the Ukrainian army.
During the meeting, special attention was paid to the Center for Prosthetics and Rehabilitation, which is being established at KPI. Vitaliy Pasichnyk, KPI Vice-Rector for Science, presented the concept of this project, which is carried out in cooperation with several partners, including KPI, the Sikorsky Challenge Innovation Holding, Kolo Charitable Foundation, Bez Obmenzhen (No Limits) Center, and the U+ Center. The project's mission is to improve the quality of life of people affected by war and other events that led to amputations.
Vitaliy Pasichnyk outlined five main tasks: first, scaling up the range of cutting-edge prosthetic technologies to meet the needs of more people; second, creating a new Ukrainian product in the field of biotechnology that will be competitive on the global market; third, physical and psychological rehabilitation of persons injured in the war; fourth, developing and adopting best practices and standards of training prosthetists and rehabilitators; fifth, creating and developing a system of acquiring new professions and skills for people with disabilities.
The presentation was followed by a discussion about potential areas of cooperation. Todd Goldstein, who is in charge of 3D design and innovation at Northwell Health, promised to share his experience of using digital technologies and crafting new, biocompatible materials for prostheses. In addition, he proposed to involve research teams from Northwell Health's partner universities in cooperation with the Ukrainian Center for Prosthetics and Rehabilitation.
Eric Cioe-Pena, Vice President of the Center for Global Health at Northwell Health, emphasized their organization's principle of cooperation and partnership. He commended the well-thought-out concept of the Ukrainian center, especially in terms of the partnership between science and industry. Mr. Cioe-Pena assured that Northwell Health would share its experience of making prostheses. The participants in the meeting concurred that exchanging ideas and information on a professional level would benefit everyone. In particular, Mykhailo Zgurovsky proposed sending detailed information on the solutions and approaches applied at the Center for Prosthetics and Rehabilitation to the American colleagues, who, in turn, would provide their vision and proposals for further cooperation.
The meeting participants also agreed to cooperate in future humanitarian projects initiated by the Ukrainian Peace Council and the Environmental Safety Council.
Given the keen interest of the parties, there is no doubt that everything planned will soon be put into practice.
Dmytro Shulikin