Olympiad on operative surgery with international participation at VSMU

On February 21-22, 2019, the Department of Operative Surgery and Topographic Anatomy of EE "Vitebsk State Medical University" hosted the Olympiad on operative surgery with international participation dedicated to the 85th anniversary of VSMU. Such medical universities as Smolensk State Medical University (SSMU), Belgorod State National Research University (NRU BelSU), Russian National Research Medical University named after N.I. Pirogov (RNRMU) and Vitebsk State Order of Peoples' Friendship Medical University (VSMU) took part in this competition by sending their teams of six 3rd – 6th year students.

The Olympiad program was quite eventful. On February 21, the first day – the students performed 5 competitive tasks. All participants of each team took part in the competitions “Theoretical stage” and “Knot-knitting in difficult surgical conditions”, and then 2 representatives of every team competed in “Kidney transplantation”, “Abdominal surgery” and “Plastic surgery” contests, since these competitions were held simultaneously.

Questions for the “Theoretical Stage” were taken from the USMLE database used for training specialists in Europe and the USA. The winner was 5th-year student of “VSMU” Elena Ladyzhina, the second place went to Tumanova Natalia, a student of Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, and the student of SSMU Smirnova Anastasia was the first.

In the competition “Knot-knitting in difficult surgical conditions” the students of “VSMU” were unbeatable, therefore the winners were: Alesya Belkovskaya, a 5th-year student - I place, Elena Ladyzhina, a 5th -year student - II place, Ilya Rubtsov, 4th - year student – III place.

In the "Plastic Surgery" competition, "VSMU" team of 6th - year student of OSTF Atakishiyev Emin and 5th - year student Belkovskaya Alesya took the first place. The second place went to the team of National Research University "BelSU", the third place - the team of SSMU.

In the "Abdominal Surgery" competition, SSMU team was the best, "VSMU" (5th -year students Vodich Andrey and Ladyzhina Elena) was the second, the students of Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University took the third place.

In the "Kidney Transplantation" competition, the team of RNRMU was the best, "VSMU" team was the second again (Pavel Filimonov, a 5th-year student, and Ilya Rubtsov, a 4th -year student), the students from SMU took the 3rd place.

The results were recorded in the final scorecard of the team rating. Based on results of the first competitive day, three teams reached the Final: EE "VSMU", SSMU and RNRMU named after N.I. Pirogov. However, the Organizing Committee of the Olympiad decided to give all teams the opportunity to prove themselves in the final test on February 22 - the operation “Bowel resection with applying of anastomosis “side-by-side”.

The guests of the Olympiad, leaders of the participating teams, highly appreciated real working conditions in the operating room. They noted the excellent level of equipment of our university, as well as the fact that not all medical universities have the opportunity for students to operate on living tissues. In the final test, the places were distributed as follows: I place - "VSMU" team, II place - SSMU team and the honorable III place went to RNRMU named after N.I. Pirogov.

As the result of competitions held within the department of our university, participated by the teams of leading medical universities in Russia, Vitebsk State Medical University was the best taking a dignified victory, which proved that the university rightfully occupies a worthy place among the medical universities in our country. Smolensk State Medical University was awarded a second place diploma. The team of Russian National Research Medical University named after N.I. Pirogov received the third degree diploma.

It is also worth noting that the deputy of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Vladimirovich Tsetzhokho came to us for closing ceremony of the Olympiad and highly appreciated the quality of training and the high level of this competition.

The team of EE "VSMU" wants to thank the administration of Vitebsk State Medical University for organizing, preparing and providing the material and technical base of the department, staff of the international department, as well as the personnel of the department of operative surgery and topographic anatomy for invaluable advices. Special thanks to our leaders, chief organizers and academic staff Stanovenko Vyacheslav Valentinovich and Kupchenko Anna Mikhailovna for their help in preparing the Olympiad, moral support, advice and effort of great value.

Our congratulations to the team of Vitebsk State Medical University – the winner!

II place - the team of Smolensk SMU, team leader Shamatkova S.V. - Head of the Department of Operative Surgery and Topographic Anatomy of SSMU, PhD, Associate Professor.

III place - the team of RNRMU named after N.I. Pirogov, team leader S.S. Meshcherin - Associate Professor of the Department of Operative Surgery and Topographic Anatomy.