Fourth Cohort of Ukrainian Physicians Visit Oklahoma to Train at OU Health

OU Health welcomed its fourth cohort of Ukrainian physicians for an exclusive, four-week surgical training program dedicated to equipping them with groundbreaking techniques to treat severe war-related facial, head and neck injuries. The goal of the program is to ensure the physicians return home with enhanced expertise, new knowledge, and unwavering support.

Dr. Mark Mims, M.D., a faculty member with the University of Oklahoma and OU Health facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon, led the effort to establish the first academic-based Ukrainian educational observership in the United States for head and neck reconstruction surgeons in 2022. This program has since expanded to include neurosurgeons and a neurologist.

This initiative offers comprehensive instruction from a number of faculty members spanning the departments of plastic surgery, oral and maxillofacial surgery, ENT, ophthalmology, neurosurgery and neurology. Over the last month, Ukrainian surgeons observed and refined their skills under the guidance of OU Health’s expert team. The surgeons are even empowered with technologically advanced glasses that provide U.S.-based physicians the ability to “see” into the operating rooms with the cohort when they return to Ukraine.

During a briefing, the visiting physicians share the horrors of war and the ramifications of a July 2024 bombing of a children’s hospital in Kyiv. The injuries sustained in war are vastly different from those outside a war zone. Ukrainian physicians treating these injuries, arriving weekly to hospitals in Kyiv and Lviv, are stretched to their limits in both resources and skills.

In August, the fourth cohort of physicians traveled over 5,000 miles to Oklahoma as part of “Operation Ukraine.” During the four-week program, the surgeons learn advanced surgical techniques that typically take years to master. This cohort, the largest yet, includes oral and maxillofacial surgeons, neurosurgeons, and an interventional neurologist from Kyiv, Lviv and Vinnytsia.

“Multiple rounds of surgeons have come to OU Health at regular intervals,” said Dr. Mims, who specializes in both surgical and non-surgical cosmetic and reconstructive techniques for the face, head and neck and serves as assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. “This is our fourth group to visit, and we aim to ensure the availability of these advanced techniques across Ukraine and contribute to the development of a sustainable model of care for head and neck trauma.”

These physicians have been warmly welcomed into the homes of local Oklahomans, experiencing the stark contrast between life in a war zone and life in Oklahoma.

After the training, the physicians return to Ukraine with U.S. surgeons who work alongside them for a short period. As an added benefit, earlier this year, the nonprofit Ohana One donated special glasses that allow the Ukrainian surgeons to live-stream their surgeries to surgeons in the U.S.

“Basically, these are surgical glasses that will livestream surgeries with the goal of allowing us to go in the operating rooms with the physicians remotely to offer assistance,” Dr. Mims said. “They’ll take them back with them and then while they are operating, they will be able to wear them and use them so that whatever they see, we are able to see here in Oklahoma in real time.”

This visit continues OU Health’s ongoing collaboration aimed at enhancing medical knowledge and skills through international exchange and is in collaboration with the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Dubbed “Operation Ukraine,” the effort is further supported by organizations such as Razom for Ukraine, INGenuis, and Sooner Hope for Ukraine.

The visiting surgeons include:

• Dr. Sergii Ivanov, Chief of Neurosurgery, Lieutenant Colonel, Military Medical Clinical Center of the Western Region, Lviv, Ukraine
• Dr. Ivan Krashevskyi, Neurosurgeon, Major, Military Medical Clinical Center of the Central Region, Vinnytsia, Ukraine
• Dr. Olexy Mykhailov, Interventional Neurologist, Major, National Military Medical Hospital, Kyiv, Ukraine
• Dr. Andrii Kopchak, Chief of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Professor, University of Bogomolets National Medical University/Kyiv Regional Hospital, Kyiv, Ukraine
• Dr. Tetiana Pavlychuk, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, Assistant Professor, University of Bogomolets National Medical University/Kyiv Regional Hospital, Kyiv, Ukraine
• Dr. Ievgen Shumynskyi, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, Assistant Professor, University of Bogomolets National Medical University/Kyiv Emergency Hospital, Kyiv, Ukraine

More than 20,000 individuals in Ukraine have been injured, many with severe and life-altering head and neck injuries.

“We are one of the biggest hospitals in the Kyiv region, and we collect a lot of patients,” said Dr. Andrii Kopchak, chief of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Kyiv Regional Hospital and professor at University of Bogomolets National Medical University. “During the last three years, we mostly deal with reconstructions, trauma cases and military trauma. We have an extreme increase in the number of patients who need head and neck reconstruction. Many doctors say that they have never seen such complex cases arise as from the hostilities on our front line.”

The Ukrainian surgeons also engaged in collaborative activities, including surgical demonstrations, lectures and hands-on training sessions.

“I’m a neurologist, so I’m not a surgeon, but because of the military influence, we have plenty of cases where the trauma causes damage that leads to stroke, thrombosis and more,” said Dr. Olexy Mykhailov, interventional neurologist and major at the National Military Medical Hospital in Kyiv. “My task is to bring the knowledge from here back to Ukraine and to share and implement the knowledge.”

“Here, we have the possibility to see surgeries and participate and learn from an experienced professional during the lectures and the theoretical courses,” said Mykhailov. “It’s a full-scale training that cannot be organized in Ukraine under existing conditions. It’s what we desperately need.”

For more information, contact Media@OUHealth.com or call (405) 271-6864.

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