Michigan medical society ships textbooks, periodicals to Vinnytsia

by Dr. George Hrycelak

WARREN, Mich. - The Michigan Chapter of UMANA, based in Detroit, on Saturday, April 12, successfully launched a locally supported project to supply the Vinnytsia State Medical University with English-language medical and dental textbooks and periodicals.

For over 50 years the mission of the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA) has been to unite health care professionals with an interest in improving the health care of Ukrainians. One method of accomplishing this goal is to broaden the base of medical knowledge available to health practitioners in Ukraine by sharing knowledge between countries.

The effort crystallized in the fall of 2002, when chapter member Dr. Vitalij Piluiko visited Prof. Moroz, rector of Vinnytsia State Medical University. A tour of the library revealed outdated, non-Ukrainian language texts and journals, with no English-language literature available. Furthermore, the medical students expressed a keen interest in current publications from the West, in part to practice English medical terminology.

UMANA Michigan Chapter President Renata Juzych-Kucyj, D.D.S., and Dr. Piluiko began work in conjunction with the university-afffiliated Institute of Post-Graduate Education in Khmelnytski, Ukraine. The team arranged for a program of donated medical texts and journals, collected by members of UMANA's Michigan Chapter, to be housed in the university library for easy and effective access.

Dr. Juzych-Kucyj kicked off the project on April 12 in the Ridna Shkola library of the Immaculate Conception Grade School in Warren, Mich. The chapter members responded graciously and generously, donating over 1,000 pounds of current medical and dental textbooks and journals from all specialties of medicine and dentistry. In addition, the project recruited donors sponsoring subscriptions to a health care journal of their choice for the Ukrainian library.

Eugene Bej of the local Dnipro Company lent encouragement to the project by assisting with the packaging of the literature and securing discounted shipping fees for the load of donations.

The executive board of the National Office of UMANA is fully supporting the Michigan Chapter's project, and encouraging similar ventures expanding medical and dental literacy among colleagues in Ukraine.

For further infommation, contact the Michigan Chapter's president, Dr. Juzych-Kucyj, at (248) 641-8700.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 22, 2003, No. 25, Vol. LXXI

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