Acquired experience has already started changing Ukrainian healthcare. During my observership, I explored the Echocardiography lab, participated in workshops with Harvard medical students, attended shifts with flight paramedics, and discussed the latest strategies in the clinical management of patients with chronic wounds in the best Wound clinic in the world.

My goal for the observership was to learn from the top experts in the specialty to improve healthcare in Ukraine; therefore, I anticipated learning new information about organizing bone marrow transplants and providing patient care. However, I gained so much more - I met not just physicians - but amazing people genuinely willing to share their knowledge and clinical experience in bone marrow transplant to improve patient outcomes in Ukraine.

We need to adopt Western technology and the education system to enhance the quality of Ukrainian healthcare. The most important takeaway for me was experiencing how the healthcare system is supposed to work. It was an exciting journey into the “new world” of cardiac surgery.