homepage: http://www.almazovcentre.ru/?lang=en
Federal North-West Medical Research Centre (hereinafter referred to as “FNWMRC”) is located in Saint-Petersburg, Russia and is considered one of the largest federal research medical institutions of the Russian Federation that provides specialized and high-tech medical care. Today FNWMRC of the Russian Ministry of Health represents a dynamically developing institution. Recent years have been crucial for the Centre since it underwent major expansion in both its scientific and clinical activities: new academic departments were opened, a perinatal center was commissioned in 2010 and medical treatment and rehabilitation complex was commissioned in 2011, thereby increasing the amount of high-tech care services. In 2014, the Centre has become a branch of the Russian Research Neurosurgical Institute of prof. A. Polenov.
At present, the Centre consists of 6 research institutions namely the Institute of Heart and Vessels, Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Institute of Endocrinology, Institute of Hematology, Institute of Perinatology and Pediatrics which unite 47 Centre research divisions, laboratories, sectors and groups. This specialized hospital and clinical research center is fully equipped with modern medical and research equipment and employs a team of well-trained professionals. Scientific staff comprises 494 people and clinical staff are represented by more than 2000 people in addition to 2 corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, 59 MDs and 129 PhDs. Scientific personnel possesses extensive expertise in various scientific fields as well as in design, execution and administering of large-scale multi-site research projects.
The qualified staff and high-technical equipment of the clinic allow to render high-tech medical care including the “cardiovascular surgery” protocol and the most difficult interventions on heart and vessels: prosthetics and plastics of valves, ascending aorta plastics, multivalvural prosthetics and a plastics of auricles and ventricles, heart bypass, which include cardiac autotransplantation, surgical treatment of postinfarction aneurysm, an ischemic heart disease and a pathology of brachiocephalic vessels, surgical treatment of all forms of congenital heart diseases and aortarctias.
The Federal Centre is on its way to transforming from a specialized cardiac facility into a leading diversified institution. The development strategy of the Centre involves improving the scientific-educational and innovative-technology infrastructure that is designed to provide a full cycle of translational research in medicine. It enables integration of the Centre into the international scientific community and helps to create systems of ongoing interdisciplinary research and postgraduate training of medical personnel.
The proactive strategy of the Centre’s Director and Research Council to excel in both clinical and fundamental research attracts clinics-related studies regarding cardiovascular, endocrine and hematological disorders. Modern building of the Centre with the area of 52 thousand square meters includes outpatient clinics, the Donor center, inpatient clinics with 350 beds, intensive therapy unit with 66 beds, 10 fully equipped surgery facilities, 6 angiographic surgery units, auxiliary services, and other. Second building with the area of 11 thousand square meters includes inpatient clinics with 360 beds (including 80 beds that are allocated for recovering patients), intensive therapy unit with 7 beds, fully equipped biochemical laboratory, cell culture research laboratory (BSL-III class) and clinical genetics laboratory, as well as the Department of Functional Research which utilizes noninvasive and X-ray-based methods, vivarium, auxiliary services, and other.
Since 2008, construction and design of the Federal Perinatal Centre has been continued. The integration of the inpatient and outpatient complex and Perinatal Centre will allow to apply modern technologies to all medical activities of the Centre, including surgical interventions in pre- and neonatal period, addressing such issues as birth rate increase, death rate decrease and disability decrease. In the future the Centre will also be capable of delivering services to the women suffering from a cardiovascular pathology in period of pregnancy and childbirth, in addition to performing antenatal diagnostics and conducting congenital anomalies of heart and vessels with further surgical corrections. Laboratories of the Centre carry out extensive experimental and applicative studies related to mesenchymal stem cells and endothelial progenitor cells, tissue ischemia biology, advanced molecular diagnostics, experimental surgery and other studies.
The Centre performs scientific work and educational programs in collaboration with Carolinian University (Stockholm, Sweden) and with Yale University (USA) — regarding training of specialists in the sphere of “cardiovascular surgery” and “endovascular x-ray surgery”, Institute Pasteur Louie in Strasbourg (France) — in the sphere of transplantology, with the Cardiological centre of Milan (Italy), Universities of Ferrara (Italy), Iowa (USA), and Oslo (Norway). The Centre acts as a major joint clinical/research venture (with solid contacts established with many supreme clinical and research sites world-wide) and ensures that its staff makes a solid contribution to performing various projects of high complexity.