Against all odds: Pirogov Clinic at St Petersburg University strengthened its research in 2020 during the pandemic

The Pirogov Clinic of High Medical Technologies at St Petersburg University

In 2020, the Pirogov Clinic of High Medical Technologies at St Petersburg University opened two departments. They are the Department of Innovative Drug Therapy and the Laboratory for Clinical Trials of Medical Devices. This has led to a significant rise in the number of clinical trials performed by the Clinic.

Last year, the Clinic had 23 clinical trials to test treatments, which is three times more than in 2019 (8 clinical trials). Cancer clinical trials took the lead (44 %), followed by clinical trials in gastroenterology and hepatology (31 %), and nephrology (13 %). In 2020, the Clinic became the third hospital in St Petersburg that gained the right to hold clinical trials of medical devices that should be performed within the framework of the regulations issued by the Eurasian Economic Union. The Laboratory has held as many as 40 clinical trials so far, which is 3.6 time more than in 2019. The Clinic takes the second place in St Petersburg for the number of the clinical trials of medical devices.

The staff of the Clinic are carrying out over 30 research projects, 10 of which are within international collaboration schemes. The research findings are published in the world’s leading journals. The number of publications has significantly increased over the recent years.

Starting collaboration with the University two years ago has significantly benefited the Clinic in what we research into. Today, we are involved in 10 international projects with thousands of patients. This provides favourable conditions for international collaboration in research, and for publishing research findings in the world’s highly cited journals in the coming years.

Yury Fedotov, Doctor of Sciences (Medicine), Senior Vice-Rector for Medical Care, Director of the Pirogov Clinic of High Medical Technologies at St Petersburg University and Honoured Physician of Russia

'Moreover, the Clinic has over 20 innovative research projects, with over 49 research publications in the world’s leading journals. An increase in citing our publications suggests that we are at the forefront of research and our publications stir global interest in the scientific community,’ said Yury Fedotov, Doctor of Sciences (Medicine), Senior Vice-Rector for Medical Care, Director of the Pirogov Clinic of High Medical Technologies at St Petersburg University and Honoured Physician of Russia.

Although the Clinic was not included in the list of the hospitals that accepted patients with COVID-19, it significantly contributed to maintaining the health and well-being of citizens of St Petersburg. It was not possible to adjust the Clinic’s premises to the needs that must be satisfied by an in-patient clinic for patients with infectious diseases. The historic buildings cannot be adjusted to these needs. Yet the Clinic accepted patients with serious pathologies. This could help those hospitals that dealt with patients with COVID-19 at the forefront of the global struggle with the pandemic.

'During the pandemic, the Clinic had a very important mission. We helped those who had non-communicable diseases. It was incredibly arduous as many of the hospitals had started to accept patients with infectious diseases only. Due to a number of local pandemic surges among our patients and staff, we closed only in April. Yet we provided a complete range of our services to patients with oncological, cardio-vascular, and endocrine disorders. These disorders were ranged as the high-priority areas by the President and Prime-Minister of the Russian Federation. Moreover, along with providing full services to haemodialysis patients who were registered to our Clinic, we also accepted patients who were registered in other clinics that were closed due to the pandemic,’ said Dr Yury Fedotov.

Although the Clinic did not focus on treating patients with COVID-19, every fifth member of its staff had the coronavirus in 2020. In some departments, especially department of haemodialysis, this number reached 80% of medical workers.

In 2020, the Clinic had 22,203 patients and performed 18,480 surgical operations in total.  The number of patients who received chemotherapy during the first wave increased by 67% compared to 2019: from 1,325 to 2,220 patients.