Igor Buzaev

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My Story

I was born in Ufa in 1978. In 1980 the family moved to Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. My father worked at the Novosibirsk Research Institute of Circulatory Pathology under the guidance of Academician E.N. Meshalkin. This institute’s particular culture allowed dad to take me to work from 8 years old. There I helped to make napkins, carry bixes, and work with an oximeter. The senior operating sister told me about new trends in treating heart attacks and cardiac surgery. She, holding my head so I would not faint, allowed me to look into the operating room. Papa and other doctors of the Meshalkin Institute showed by their example how it is possible and necessary to love medicine and people.

In 1989 we moved to Ufa. The school was under the patronage of Bashkir State Medical University, and we had elective medical courses to prepare for the university. From 1990 to 1995, I studied at school number 35. I graduated with a gold medal (with honors).

In 1995 I entered the Bashkir State Medical University at the Faculty of Pediatrics, from which I graduated with honors in 2001. In my student years, I actively participated in the physiology of the cardiovascular system (we developed an interface for connecting a polygraph to a PC, and I wrote software on Assembler), pathophysiology, and spoke at the All-Russian Student Conference on Paediatric Surgery in Samara. Immediately after graduating from BSMU, I completed an internship in pediatric surgery, then a clinical residency in surgery.

At the same time (January 2000–February 2003), I worked at the All-Russian Centre for Eye and Plastic Surgery as a programmer (wrote programs, created and maintained the website https://www.alloplant.ru, was engaged in design and photography), then quit in 2003 due to the beginning of surgical practice.

In August 2004, I started to work in the Republican Cardiological Dispensary (Ufa) as a cardiovascular surgeon in the department of interventional cardiology. These days, especially, my father was my teacher and mentor. He was the chief of this department. He took holding my hands and showed me tips and tricks of interventional cardiology. He taught me humanistic management and everything others can. In January 2010 was appointed head of interventional cardiology department No. 1. At that moment, I did everything I could in the cath lab and managed the department.

I independently created a medical information system that worked throughout the Republican Cardiological Dispensary (Ufa) for ten years and was then partially replaced by Promed. Promed is the governmental medical information system developed with my participation and knowledge exchange. The system significantly automated my work as the head of the department. It has several official certificates of registration of PC software. Some functions of my program are still indispensable and still work (2022). In 2005 I studied at the Physicians Educational Program “Optimal pacing therapy,” Vitatron, Arnhem, Netherlands.

In 2007, under the guidance of Professor V.V. Plechev defended my thesis at the Novosibirsk Science Centre of Cardiovascular pathology named after. academician E.N. Meshalkin, Novosibirsk. The specialty of the thesis is 14.00.44 – cardiovascular surgery on a topic related to the mathematical modeling of hemodynamic changes.

In 2008 I graduated with honors from the Bashkir Academy of Public Administration and Management under the President of the Republic of Bashkortostan in jurisprudence and had got a lowyer degree.

In 2008-2009 I was the first from Russia to organize participation in the European Euro Heart Survey PCI registry. Then, in 2010, I completed a one-month internship on radial access at the Virgen Macarena clinic in Seville, Spain. In Russia, a few used this technique at this time. Then I participated in a review internship at Montefiore children’s hospital, NY (Robert Pass), Columbia university children’s clinic (Julie Vincent), and Cornell Presbyterian Hospital (Ajay Mirani) for pediatric X-ray surgery. Then there was a two-week internship in hybrid surgery at the Heart Centre of the University Hospital Cologne (Herzzentrum Uniklinik Köln) Uniklinik Köln Klinik und Poliklinik für Gefäßchirurgie Kerpener Str. 62, 50937 Köln (07.09.2012) and a two-week advanced course at the Boston Scientific School of Interventional Cardiology (2-week training on interventional cardiology for advanced practitioners) (01.07.2012-14.07.2012). In 2011, I attended open lectures at the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO (Vladimir Pirozhkov: “Do-it-yourself innovation – how to develop a global project”).

I carried out a large number of interventional procedures independently. The need for better long-term results prompted me to learn about the issues of physical rehabilitation. In 2011 I passed advanced training at the Bashkir Institute of Physical Culture of the Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education Ural NUFK. To monitor patients at this time, I developed and launched a SaaS online dispensary monitoring system for operated patients for feedback on the quality of our treatment (there is an official certificate of PC software registration) to track long-term results. We perfected this system during use, then transferred it as a technical task and implemented it in the Promed system. Then in 2017, I developed the CorGuard IOS mobile application for tracking patient state.

As the head of the department, I performed operations on about five hundred patients a year. Tried to do all interventions permitted in Russia and introduced intravascular ultrasound, measurement of fractionated blood flow reserve, and optical coherence tomography (2011). Less than ten centers in Russia performed these procedures. We introduced intracardiac echocardiography in our region with Prof. Eustaquio Onorato (Italy). In 2013 I underwent retraining in functional diagnostics. In 2014, I organized the International weekly preventive medicine course ICHARM-2014 with the University College of London. I arranged and performed the first transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVI) operations in the Republic of Bashkortostan.

In 2018, at the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “The Russian Scientific Center for Surgery, named after acad. B.V. Petrovsky” defended his doctoral dissertation on the created clinical decision support system for the type of revascularization under the guidance of Professor V.V. Plechev. This year I completed retraining in a healthcare organization and public health at BSMU and studied for a black belt in LSS at the Management and Strategy Institute.

In 2019, one of the first in Russia, I implemented hybrid imaging to treat structural heart diseases, combining echocardiographic, fluoroscopic, and tomographic images. I promoted this technology in Russia at several conferences. Also, I participated actively in the working groups to implement ISO9001, EFQM, and the recommendations of Roszdravnadzor in our hospital.

In 2016, the international conference TCT Asia Pacific organization committee invited me as a faculty member. I presented the closure of interatrial defects under the control of intracardiac ultrasound at EUROPCR-2016 (Paris, France). Repeatedly spoke in Asia in China (Harbin, Dalian, Changchun, CSI Asia Guangzhou). In 2019, I was the initiator and organizer of the Russian section “Interventions in Russia: messages from avant-garde experts” of the prestigious CSI Frankfurt conference together with Academician Alekyan B.G., Professor Horst Sievert (Germany) and Eustaquio Onorato (Italy).

The interventional cardiology department at the Republican Heart Centre, which I was in charge of (2010-2021), had high ratings in Russia (according to the annual bulletin of the chief freelance specialist of the Russian Federation, B.G. Alekyan). In recent years, the GBUZ RCC was in the top three, five, and ten clinics in most interventional cardiology areas. Under my leadership, the department’s specialists perfectly mastered all cardiological interventions in the Russian Federation. The results of the department’s work steadily improved, and the department began to reach the plateau stage of the S-curve of innovative technology development. It was possible to increase the volumes slightly, but not the range. Everything could already work without my participation.

For development, I needed a qualitatively new leap. In 2018, I learned from my wife about the technology of non-invasive (without incisions), and predictable MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) neurosurgical operations, which has not yet been performed in Russia. This fact inspired us, and we became co-founders of the first neurosurgical center for MRgFUS treatment in Russia (https://buzaevclinic.com). We found premises and funds and purchased high-tech equipment. With the manufacturer, we installed the MRgFUS table. We found specialists and trained them.

We planned a visit of INSIGHTEC specialists from abroad in April 2020 to launch our center. But COVID-19 closed all borders, and this became impossible. This obstacle prompted us to create the world’s first MRGFUS telemedicine operating room with the virtual presence of proctors. Specialists from Israel, Great Britain, and Spain were able to instruct and launch this very complex neurosurgical operation. The new centers in France and Australia followed our example to launch.

To promote the technology, I organized the International Focused Ultrasound Non-invasive Neurosurgery Congress (FUNNC-2021) in May 2021, dedicated to the year since the opening of the medical center (https://funnc.org). The pioneers of MRgFUS treatment from Japan, Spain, Great Britain, Taiwan, and Israel attended the event as speakers. To October 2022, we performed more than 120 MRGFUS neuro operations at our center.

Since September 2011, I have been working as an assistant. Since 2016 I have become an assistant professor, and since 2020, a professor at the Department of Hospital Surgery of the Bashkirian State Medical University. I created an online course on topics at the Department of Hospital Surgery of the Bashkir State Medical University, which helped a lot to continue studying the conditions of COVID-19. In this, I followed the example of the online systems of John Hopkins University (USA, Maryland), Emory University (USA, Georgia), and Anaheim University (USA, California).

From 2012 to 2021, I was the chief freelance specialist in interventional cardiology at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Bashkortostan. In 2012 there were only four interventional cardiology departments in the Republic of Bashkortostan. During my work in the Ministry of Healthcare, I was the initiator and supervisor of the creation of branches in Sterlitamak, Mesyagutovo, Salavat, Sibay, Beloretsk, Neftekamsk, Clinical hospital 18 (Ufa). I repeatedly traveled at the stage of preparation, their opening, and during their work with master classes. I handed over a position with 15 departments in the Republic of Bashkortostan and with leading positions in the Russian Federation (GBUZ Republican Heart center in terms of the number of procedures, the number of coronary angiographies, the number of PCIs, the number of cardiovascular interventions with CHD. Our department was in the top ten rating out of hundreds of departments (Official report of the chief specialist in Russia B.G. Alekian).

I am studying for a master’s degree at Anaheim University (California) under the MFA program. I am the director of two short films about medicine: awards winning “The Spiral,” 2020 (https://the-spiral.com) and “New Surgery,” 2021 (https://new-surgery.ru).

In October 2021, The rector of Bashkir State Medical University invited me to the BSMU Clinic for the position of Deputy Chief Physician for New Medical Technologies and Innovative Development. In this regard, I resigned from the Republican Heart Centre, transferring to the leading department in the Russian Federation without any problem with my successor.

In November 2021, I changed my position from BSMU Clinic to my MRGFUS medical center (https://buzaevclinic.com) as a co-founder, CDBO, and cardiovascular surgeon consultant. I consult patients as a cardiovascular surgeon and interventional cardiologist.

I have publications in Russian and international journals, in particular, Euro Heart Journal Case Reports, Journal of American College of Cardiology, and Frontiers, well as two articles in the Chinese journal Chronic Diseases and Translational Medicine on artificial intelligence and clinical decision support.
 

My awards: the nominee of the National Award in the field of cardiology “Purple Heart” (05/19/2011), Excellence in Public Health of the Republic of Bashkortostan (08/29/2011), Gratitude of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy (11/14/2013), “Sobaka” magazine TOP30 the most famous people of Ufa in nomination “Science” (2015), Honorary diploma of the Government of the Republic of Bashkortostan (06/09/2017), certificates of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Bashkortostan, academic title of associate professor.

I always sincerely share my knowledge, tips, and tricks with those interested in it. Now I am showing my son all things I have learned.