A meeting of the Northern Forum’s Working Group on Northern Health and Social Issues was held on November 23, 2018, and was timed to the III International Scientific and Practical Conference “Arctic Telemedicine” in Naryan-Mar (hereafter referred to as Conference).
At the Conference acting Chairman of the Working Group, Head of Telemedicine Center, which is a part of Centre for Disaster Medicine under the Ministry of Healthcare of Sakha Republic (Yakutia), NF Telemedicine Project Coordinator, Ph.D. Matvey Nikolayev made a report on "Development of telemedicine in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)".
Colleagues from other regions noted a good level of telemedicine development in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). A Conference’s draft resolution, based on Matvey Nikolayev’s speech, includes appropriate proposals for separate financing of telemedicine, its allocating in general programs of informatization and the digital health care system of the Russian Federation, because of different tasks of each section, since such programs are formed by IT specialists and often telemedicine is funded by leftover principle.
On November 22, acting Chairman of the Working Group also took part in the Expert Meeting on the draft of Northern Forum’s Strategy, where he suggested to include a cooperation in the field of healthcare in the list of NF member-regions’ joint activities (paragraph 3.2.2.) as one of fundamental elements. Members of the Working Group also participated in a Northern Forum Regional Coordinators Committee’s open meeting.
Participants of the Northern Forum’s Working Group on Health in the North and Social Issues meeting, which was held on November 23: Matvey Nikolaev - PhD, Head of Telemedicine Center, Centre for Disaster Medicine under the Ministry of Healthcare of Sakha Republic (Yakutia), NF Telemedicine Project Coordinator, Russia, Acting Chairman of the Working Group; Mikhail Pogodaev - Executive Director of the Northern Forum Secretariat; Olga Timofeeva-Tereshkina - Deputy Executive Director of the Northern Forum Secretariat; Roman Garaev - PhD, Head of the Telemedicine Technologies Department, Regional State Budgetary Institution of Healthcare, Krasnoyarsk Regional Medical Information and Analytical Center; Sergey Sviridov - Head of the Department of Health, Labor and Social Protection of Nenets Autonomous Okrug; Alexander Vorotnikov - PhD, Associate Professor, RANEPA, PORA Expert Center (Project Office for Arctic Development), Moscow; Andrei Kazakov - Advisor, High North Center for Business and Governance, Business School at Nord University.
The following issues were put on the meeting’s agenda:
- On the activities of the Northern Forum Working Groups.
Information by Mikhail Pogodaev
- Review of the Northern Forum’s projects.
Information by Matvey Nikolaev
- Regional cooperation in the field of healthcare and social
issues in the North.
Information by Matvey Nikolaev, Sergey Sviridov, Andrei Kazakov, Roman Garaev, Aleksander Vorotnikov.
Matvey Nikolaev made a report on the following NF projects’ activity:
- Monitoring of tuberculosis infection with drug resistance in circumpolar regions of Russia;
- Prevention of addictions;
- Prevention of suicides;
- Telemedicine.
A project "Arctic telemedicine in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)" was reviewed at a joint meeting of two committees of the Sakha Republic’s State Assembly (Il Tumen) on November 2, 2018. Participated deputies of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) made tangible proposals for financial support of that socially important project. Recommendations were made to those responsible organizations - Ministry of Health and Ministry of Innovation, Digital Development and Information and Communication Technologies of the Sakha Republic.
Matvey Nikolaev stressed that the biggest problem in the development of telemedicine is an insufficient financing of technologies, which are important for the North and the Arctic.
Following the Working Group meeting, it was decided:
- To intensify Working Group’s work on participation in the Northern Forum’s projects competition;
- To suggest a new project “Red Chum” to be added in the NF WG’s list of projects on health in the North, taking into account all positive experience of Nenets Autonomous Okrug;
- To hold working meetings at least once a quarter, using video conferencing. Roman Garaev assumed responsibility for technical support of the video conferencing. The Working Group’s meetings should be held at least once a year, in the framework of major events of the Northern Forum’s member regions;
- To introduce a principle of interchangeability of Working Group’s members from regions and countries for a full-fledged quorum and fruitful work on projects;
- To consider tools and methods for raising financial support for implementation of projects on health in the North and other social projects, including public-private partnership mechanisms.