News
A Friendly Attitude to Children Is the Basic Philosophy of the Dmitry Rogachev Center
Director General Galina Novichkova spoke at a plenary session of the VI Congress of Cancer Patients held in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation in Moscow. Her report focused on the history of the Center and its philosophy: a friendly attitude to children and their families.
“Today, the Pediatric Oncology and Hematology Service in our country celebrates its 30th birthday. All these years we have been creating an environment where children and their parents would feel comfortable, without experiencing a tough hospital atmosphere. The Dmitry Rogachev Center was constructed the way children wanted to see it. Even the color scheme of the building itself was chosen according to the wishes of the children,” Galina Novichkova added.
The Dmitry Rogachev Center is the largest European center, and one of the world’s largest medical centers of pediatric oncology and hematology. We offer treatment to little patients from all over the Russian Federation with the most difficult diagnoses; such patients require an innovative treatment. The Russkoe Pole Rehabilitation Center (lit., “Russian Field”) is a part of the Center. More than 500 children can be treated and rehabilitated there at the same time. More than 78,000 children have been hospitalized in the Center for the past 10 years.
Moreover, the Dmitry Rogachev Center performs one third of bone marrow transplants in Russia. Since 2012, it has conducted more than 2,000 transplantations. It is an important and necessary treatment for the patients who do not respond to other treatment. The results are incredible: 70 to 90% of the patients recover after transplantation depending on their diagnosis.
“Unfortunately, there is a shortage of transplant beds in Russia. About 40% of the patients who are in need of bone marrow transplantations cannot get it”, Galina Novichkova said.
The Dmitry Rogachev Center is the only medical institution in Russia that provides CAR-T therapy. The therapy is conducted for the patients diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia, who were previously considered to be palliative. This method has not been registered in the Russian Federation yet. It is practiced as a part of a scientific project at the Dmitry Rogachev Center. Since the start of the project, about 100 patients who have got the CAR-T; today, 60% of them are in remission.
A friendly attitude to children and their families is the basis of the philosophy of the Center. The physicians share these principles and values with their colleagues from other regions of Russia.
“We create comfortable conditions for mothers and their children. They need to feel cared for when their condition is severe. A mother always stays with her child. When a child can see the mother, they feel differently. Children can play with their parents in the preoperative room. The mother follows her child to the operating room. After the child has fallen asleep, the mother waits for them in the recovery room. When they wake up after the operation the first thing they see is their mother's face”, the Head of the Center explained.
To protect a child from pain is another important principle of the doctors working at the Dmitry Rogachev Center – they are children’s friends and helpers.