Corky Ribakoff Women’s Clinic and Dnepropetrovsk Pediatric Clinic
A major humanitarian accomplishment of the DKP has been the establishment of ambulatory public health facilities for women and children. Funded by CJP’s Overseas Committee and private philanthropists, including Charles and Patty Ribakoff, the clinics are chaired by Dr. Benjamin Sachs, Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Dr. David Link, Chief of Pediatrics at Cambridge Health Alliance and Mt. Auburn Hospital. The Corky Ribakoff Women’s Clinic and the pediatric clinic serve the Jewish and non-Jewish populations of Dnepropetrovsk.
The women’s and pediatric primary care clinic address specific health concerns including the high rates of infertility, cervical cancer, infections, repeated abortions for women and vaccine-preventable diseases, ENT infections and limited amounts of antibiotics for children. In addition to affordable gynecological and primary child-care services, the clinics have introduced a new concept of preventive health care that encourages annual examinations, access to family planning and counseling services. As a supplementary activity of the pediatric clinic, the Boston-Dnepropetrovsk Health Care Foundation, a project of the Boston-Jewish community, provided vaccines from four pharmaceutical companies and is currently immunizing 10,000 children over the next years.
In 2005 Ben Sachs facilitated the donation of a mammogram machine from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute to Hospital #9 in Dnepropetrovsk – the hospital which is associated with the Corky Ribakoff Women’s Clinic and is in the same building. This will be the first mammogram machine the city has ever known. A critical missing component of women's health care in Dnepropetrovsk and in Ukraine as a whole has been the absence of breast cancer screening of any kind. Ukraine has one of the highest rates of breast cancer in Europe and it is rising. This is attributed, in part, to the disaster of Chernobyl. Breast cancer screening is virtually non-existent due to the high cost machinery, technical training and X-ray film. The primary treatment for breast cancer disease, when diagnosed, is radical mastectomy due to late diagnosis, no follow up, and poor education. A mammography screening program accompanied by an educational public awareness campaign would save countless lives.
A Boston philanthropist will be contributing funds to support a mammogram program in Dnepropetrovsk which will include both medical care and education. This program will launch in 2006. Radiologists from Dnepropetrovsk will be brought to Boston to train with radiologists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Physicians from Boston will in turn travel to Dnepropetrovsk for follow-up training there. This screening center will be the only one in Dnepropetrovsk and will be available to women, Jewish and non-Jewish, throughout the city. Return to Dnepropetrovsk Projects Page
