LI doctors use telemedicine to back up Ukraine physicians

Doctors and nurses caring for patients in war-torn eastern Ukraine will soon have an extra set of eyes here on Long Island.

Northwell Health, the state’s largest health system, is working with the Ukrainian military to launch a unique telemedicine platform with seven undisclosed health centers where intense fighting with Russian soldiers has left thousands of civilians and soldiers wounded or dead, stressing the nation’s already taxed medical resources.

Northwell is adapting technology used to help patients sick with COVID-19 during the pandemic to assist medical professionals operating in a war zone about 4,700 miles away, said Dr. Eric Cioè Peña, Northwell’s director of the Center for Global Health, which will manage the Ukraine operation. The program would assist injured soldiers and civilians

“When we heard about the Ukrainian conflict breaking out, a lot of us got together and said ‘wouldn’t this be an amazing technology that we could adapt to help in Ukraine,’ ” Peña said. “ . . . We are talking about providing subspecialty backup to physicians, paramedics and nurses that are overtaxed in clinical areas and that need experience that is rested and ready to help figure out some of the more complicated clinical cases.”

Dr. Jonathan Berkowitz, medical director for Northwell’s Center for Emergency Medicine in Syosset, said the hospital system’s experience with telemedicine during the pandemic should prove valuable with the Ukranian program.

“We’ve leveraged the versatility of our team during COVID and we see many of the same opportunities it can provide in this fight,” he said. “This is a space where we’ve written the playbook. We’re going to do it again and will adapt this platform to serve the greatest need in a variety of situations.”

The Ukraine program, which began Wednesday, will roll out in two phases.

Initially, Northwell doctors, surgeons and nurses who have volunteered to be on call at all times for the program — including some who speak Ukrainian and Russian — will receive requests for assistance from Ukrainian medical providers who will communicate on mobile devices, including laptops, tablets and phones.

As the program progresses and adapts to the changing needs of Ukranian medical professionals, Northwell will send up to 100 medical-grade, high-fidelity telemedicine systems, similar to those used in U.S. hospitals, to the overseas health centers, allowing them to collaborate on complicated operating room cases, Peña said.

These telemedicine systems, which include telephonic and written translation, can be controlled remotely by Long Island physicians to change their view of a patient or to examine postoperative care, officials said.

“The Northwell Transfer Center, which played a significant role in load balancing of our hospitals during COVID, will develop this complex operation which will allow physicians in Ukraine to access the same world-renowned specialists that we offer to patients and physicians in the New York region” said Michael Dowling, Northwell’s president and chief executive, in a statement.

Ukrainian doctors could ask for a case consult with a neurosurgeon on a trauma case or have them read a CT scan; meet virtually with a specialist such as a pediatric endocrinologist or receive advice in determining if a patient needs emergency surgery or should be observed in the intensive care unit, Peña said.

“Their tertiary systems are taxed,” he said of Ukranian hospitals and health centers. “We are treating this as Northwell’s 24th hospital and trying to offer the same level of support to the docs in Ukraine as we do with community docs to our institutions.”

While the program does not have an end date, it will not be operating indefinitely, officials said.

While no other hospital system on Long Island is providing telemedicine assistance to the Ukrainians, many are involved in humanitarian relief efforts.

For example, Catholic Health Systems donated more than $300,000 worth of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, in collaboration with other providers of the Greater New York Hospital Association, to the U.S. Ukraine Foundation.

Meanwhile, Stony Brook University Hospital employees recently collected medical supplies, clothing and other needed household items that were then sent to St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church in Riverhead. The church worked with a relief organization to deliver the items to Ukraine.

Northwell has no immediate plans, officials said, to send their medical staff to Ukraine but has collected more than $210,000, earmarked for Doctors Without Borders, and has shipped 18,000 pounds of medical supplies to the Ukrainian government.

Peña said the cost of shipping all 100 telemedicine units would be roughly $2 million, not including the time of Northwell doctors.

The program, Peña said, will change significantly in the coming weeks to adapt to the needs of Ukrainian doctors and as they become more comfortable with the technology.

“They’re doing great work right now,” he said. “They’re putting in long hours and it’s a really difficult job. We are trying to make their job a little bit easier.”

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.