Kirov State Medical Academy

Kirov state medical academy (KSMA) is the youngest higher medical establishment in the Russian Federation that was created to consolidate all Kirov region's programs in medical education. Founded in 1987 by an act of Russian Ministry of Health Protection as an affiliation medical school of Perm State Medical Academy, KSMA was granted status of an independent state-supported higher medical school in 1993, in recognition of its growth and development as a regionwide system for health.

KSMA's most important objectives are:

• to provide educational programs that enable medical students to master all branches of medicine and health care skills, and think critically;

• to prepare medical students to demonstrate competence in their fields of study at appropriate degree levels and to encourage excellence in student learning;
• to develop programs to meet the most urgent needs of the region's health care;
• to provide graduate and continuing educational programs for both professional advancement and personal enrichment;
• to encourage and provide essential support services for creative activities and research;
• to provide a variety of public services to enhance the well-being of the medical school and its community;
• to provide leadership and planning for future development.

Nowadays KSMA trains over 4,000 students and includes 5 faculties, over 50 educational departments and various subdivisions supervised by experienced and highly qualified professors and associate professors.

In addition to the clinical departments, located in the best hospitals of the city of Kirov , KSMA has:

•  its own clinic;

•  outpatient policlinic;

•  well-organized pharmaceutical service;

•  Kirov Interregional Center of Hepatosurgery ;

•  Kirov Interregional Center of Cardiac Surgery;

•  Kirov Interregional Epilepsy Treatment Center ;

•  Kirov Interregional Ophthalmology and Ophthalmosurgery Center ;

•  Kirov Interregional Center of Medical Sociology;

•  An interregional diabetes center for patient education is being organized and is sure to contribute to the improvement of health care in the region and neighboring areas.

•  Research library with more than 200,000 units of storage.

At KSMA there are the following scientific schools: infectious diseases (Prof. Bondarenko), neurology and neurosurgery (Prof. Bein), obstetrics and gynecology (Prof. Dvorynsky), public health (Prof. Sheshunov, Prof. Kukovyakin), rheumatology (Prof. Nemtsov), surgery (Prof. Zhuravlev , Prof. Bakhtin) and many others.

Kirov state medical Academy is an active participant of national research programs held under the supervision of Russian Ministry of Health Care and Russian academy of Medical Sciences . At present Academy takes part in such national projects as ⌠Public health and ⌠Education thus confirming its role in the reform of the system of health protection, globalization of higher medical education and practical realization of the Bologna declaration.

KSMA has already gained experience in international cooperation in joint research programs with such foreign countries as Germany , Great Britain and the USA . Another important sphere that is being developed is academic mobility. By now more than 400 students and researchers of KSMA have visited Germany , France , Italy , Great Britain , China , Canada and the USA on various academic purposes.

Academy has been an active participant of international conferences. By itself KSMA has organized more than 80 international conferences and workshops on actual problems of family medicine, urology, andrology, gynecology, minimally invasive surgery, hematology, therapy, neurology, cardiac surgery, hepatology, hepatic surgery, ophthalmology and ophthalmic surgery. New methods of surgery are constantly being mastered. Basic laboratories take active part in international clinic tests.

KSMA has good scientific relationships with Kirov Research Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Kirov Research Institute of Microbiology, Perm Medical academy, Nizhny Novgorod Medical academy, medical academies and medical research institutions of Moscow and St. Petersburg .

For nearly fifteen years Academy has been training foreign students from various Asian, South American and African countries such as Azerbaijan, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Syria, Sudan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and others.

One of the departments of KSMA is Institute of postgraduate education that enables graduates and practitioners to improve their knowledge by the following kinds of post-graduate and additional education: research postgraduate course, clinical residency, internship, professional specialist retraining.

An important area of Academy's life is health recreation, sports and other extracurricular activities. KSMA can boast of European, national and regional champions in judo, swimming, skiing, track, basketball and chess.

KSMA students are active and good at amateur concerts, amateur drama performances and Kirov intercollege «Funny Tricks and Witty Humor» contests. Now at Academy there are 3 dance clubs, a theatre and a chorus. Students actively participate in popular «Students' Spring» festivals held among Kirov higher educational establishments and are always prize winners of these competitions. Among the students are also many activists of the Regional Charity Foundation.