Governor of St Petersburg awards Iurii Shcherbuk for his contributions to medicine
Professor Iurii Shcherbuk, Dean of the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Medical Technologies at St Petersburg University, has been decorated with the Badge of Honour ‘For Merit to St Petersburg’. The decoration was presented to him by the Governor of St Petersburg Alexander Beglov. The awarding ceremony was timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Professor Shcherbuk.
‘You amply demonstrated professional competences and personal qualities as the Chairman of the Health Committee of St Petersburg. Your professionalism, integrity and genuine concern for the health of the citizens earned you the well-deserved respect of your colleagues and all St Petersburg citizens,’ said Alexander Beglov. The Governor of St Petersburg emphasised that Professor Shcherbuk’s extensive experience and expertise are in great demand for educating and training of the younger generation of healthcare professionals.
Iurii Shcherbuk is a Doctor of Science (Medicine); Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Department of Medical Sciences (Neurosurgery); Major-General of Medical Service; Professor; and Honoured Physician of the Russian Federation.
Iurii Shcherbuk has been practising as a physician for over 45 years. He served as a surgeon in military hospitals deployed in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Later, he worked in hospitals in the Transbaikal and Leningrad Military Districts. Since the mid-1990s, Dr Shcherbuk has been teaching medicine. Currently, Professor Shcherbuk is Dean of the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Medical Technologies and Head of the Department of Neurosurgery and Neurology at St Petersburg University. From 2003 to 2012, he was the Chairman of the Health Committee of St Petersburg. He is also a member of the Board of the Association of Neurosurgeons of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
During his career, Dr Shcherbuk has performed several thousand of the most complex operations, including computer-assisted neurosurgeries supported by neuroendoscopy and neuronavigation systems. At present, these neurosurgical operations are performed in few clinics in Russia and overseas. Professor Shcherbuk participated in the first in Russia successful bilateral lung transplantation.
As the Chairman of the Health Committee of St Petersburg, Iurii Shcherbuk was instrumental in the modernisation of the healthcare system in St Petersburg. The retrofitting, construction and renovation of hospitals, including specialised medical centres; development of a rehabilitation system; and centralisation of laboratory services contributed to an increase in population growth and the average life expectancy.
Under the leadership of Iurii Shcherbuk, the system for organ donation and transplantation in St Petersburg was reorganised. Accordingly, the number of organ transplantations in the city rose sevenfold in eight years. Professor Shcherbuk substantiated and implemented in clinical practice the principles for assessment of newborn infants following a birth injury and the guidelines for neonatal medical care. This enabled a significant reduction in infant mortality rates for St Petersburg. Moreover, Professor Shcherbuk implemented into clinical practice a new organisational model for providing hi-tech neuro-oncological care and a rehabilitation system for patients with tumours of the nervous system, which improved the outcomes of their treatment.
Professor Iurii Shcherbuk is the author and co-author of over 650 research papers and four patents.