Category: News

On the World Health Day, April 7, the Association of Medical Students in Bulgaria – Burgas, together with the Municipality of Burgas, honored leading doctors from the region and awarded 33 pupils and 5 students in an essay contest on the theme: ‘The doctor – my inspiration’.

The head of the Medical Imaging department, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lachezar Manchev and Dr. Milena Vassileva, pediatrician at the Heart and Brain Center of Clinical Excellence participated in a discussion panel during the event. In front of the future doctors, the specialists from the newest high-tech hospital in the seaside town talked about their professional path, the challenges in medicine and what inspires them. They also answered questions from the audience.

The world-renowned orthopaedist prof. Heinz Roettinger arrives from Germany at the invitation of prof. Asparuh Asparuhov, Head of the Orthopaedics and Traumatology Clinic at the Heart and Brain Center of Excellence in Pleven. He will support the work of the Clinic from 30 March to 1 April. “Together with Prof. Dr. Roettinger we will perform joint operations on our patients using the method of minimally invasive hip arthroplasty introduced by him. This is the so-called ‘Roettinger Method’ – a minimally invasive surgical approach that spares the soft tissues and does not damage the muscles. It enables patients to recover faster, literally within hours,” said Prof. Asparuhov.

Businessman Stoyan Georgiev, who organizes some of the biggest exhibitions in the city, was admitted as an emergency patient to the new Heart and Brain Center of Excellence in Burgas a month ago. His condition is critical as the initial symptoms indicate the presence of a stroke.

“During my stay at Heart and Brain I was pleasantly surprised by the personal attitude and direct involvement of each of the doctors, specialists and hospital staff towards each and every patient. I have been admitted to hospital before, again in Burgas, which I do not want to reminisce about. I did not suspect at all that in our city, maybe even in Bulgaria, medical service and patient care is offered at such a high level.

I would like to thank prof. Dimitrov, Dr. Shterev, Dr. Lambova, Dr. Osman and the whole team of specialists at Heart and Brain for all the efforts they made for me. Stay healthy!”, Georgiev told Factor.

The full article is available here in Bulgarian.

“The capabilities of the laboratory include sleep disorders testing, functional respiratory testing (spirometry), lung diffusion capacity testing, body plethysmography, cadriopulmonary exercise testing and measurement of the fraction of nitric oxide (NO) in exhaled air (FeNO), informed Dr. Ilia Krachunov – Head of the Department.

The state-of-the-art equipment is located in the high-tech Heart and Brain Hospital and is part of the new Pulmonology Department – specialized in the treatment of acute SARS-CoV-2 as well as complications of the infection.

You can read the full article here.

A children’s medical care unit opened at the ,Heart and Brain’ Center of Clinical Excellence in Pleven. Consultative help is provided here for all children’s diseases. Dr. Lilia Valeri Nikolova-Georgieva is taking care of Pleven’s children. “I always wanted to be a doctor. I have never had any doubts about my specialty either. With the opening of the specialized office in the modern , Heart and Brain’ we will be of help to parents by providing highly qualified assistance in various areas of pediatrics.”

Read the full article here in Bulgarian.

As an expression of empathy and motivated by the desire to help the thousands of Ukrainian citizens forced to leave their homes due to hostilities and severe humanitarian crisis, the Bulgarian Cardiac Institute offers job opportunity to an unlimited number of doctors of various specialties, nurses and other health professionals from Ukraine. Our 2 ‘Heart and Brain’ Centers of Excellence in Burgas and Pleven, 5 specialized cardiology hospitals in Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Yambol, Pleven, Shumen and 15 medical centers cover 2/3 of the Bulgarian territory and are one of the leading medical organizations in Southeast Europe.

Minimally invasive methods in spinal neurosurgery is the project that Heart and Brain Center of Excelence is involved with this year: ‘I am truly proud of our results – the success rate for patients with spinal afflictions at the Heart and Brain Pleven Neurosurgery and Spinal Surgery Clinic is over 90 – 93%, which is a very high percentage even for reputable European clinics’.

“Patients come to me at different stages of their suffering – for a primary examination with relevant complaints, for a second opinion or due to unsatisfactory results of surgical treatment. I am convinced that for all these cases we have the right solution, such as they will get in the best European clinics”

“Pleven is an example of how competition in health care provides a very good health product for society. My opinion is that state regulation should be withdrawn to some extent from the sector, to create conditions for more competition. This will, no doubt, lead to more new technologies and an increased quality of healthcare service for patients.”

This is what prof. Toni Vekov, who is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Cardiac Institute and the Heart and Brain centers of clinical excellence in Pleven and Burgas. Together with Martin Mitev – the Administrative Director of Heart and Brain in Pleven, they participated in a conference on “Healthcare and Innovations in Medicine”, organized by the Bulgarian News Agency within the framework of the “Bulgarian Voices for Europe” initiative.

Please find the full article here.

The Bulgarian Cardiac Institute announced the winners of the first edition of the competition “My Memorable Patient” for 2021. Participants from all the Institute’s hospitals in the country gathered at the Heart and Brain Hospital in Pleven for the award ceremony.

“For us, the patient always comes first. Moreover, we do not stop paying attention to our scientific development, because our goal is to be a leading medical and scientific organization not only in the country, but also in the whole Southeastern Europe”, said Prof. Dr. Iana Simova – Executive Director of the Bulgarian CardiacInstitute at the award ceremony.

The administrative director of the Heart and Brain Hospital in Pleven, Martin Mitev, also addressed the attendees, noting the great interest in the competition on the part of all BCI clinics and the intention to make the initiative an annual one.

The idea for the ‘My Memorable Patient’ contest was the work of Dr. Anyuta Ivanova, a member of the BCI Board of Directors, who said: “BCI’s mission is to thoroughly investigate the problems of its patients, to provide them with high quality health care and to be committed to the continuing education and professional development of our physicians.”

After discussing the cases presented, the academic jury distinguished three of them:

First place: Clinic of Medical Oncology at Heart and Brain Pleven, for the article “The era of precision medicine: a clinical case of ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer and a review of therapeutic options”. Authors. Ass. Prof. N. Chilingirova, Dr. M. Tsakova, Dr. Damyanov;

Second place: Clinic of Cardiology at Heart and Brain Pleven for the article: ‘Left-sided implantation of a bicuspid pacemaker with an atrial electrode implanted in the right atrial ear and a right ventricular electrode implanted by “loop and drop-down” – the methods in a patient with persistent left superior vena cava’. Authors: Dr N. Petrov, Prof. I. Simova, Dr. P. Pavlov;

Third place: Clinic of Cardiac Surgery, Heart and Brain Hospital Pleven, for the article “Complete aortic arch debranching and TEVAR without extracorporeal circulation”. Authors. Dr. N. Bonchev, Dr. A. Georgiev, Dr. Y. Krasnaliev.

All interesting cases will be published in the special first issue for 2022 of the journal Cardiology & Cardiac Surgery.

Interview with Dr Tsvetomir Ivanov, MD, specialist in oncological surgery at the Heart and Brain Hospital Pleven on the occasion of the month when the Bulgarian Cardiological Institute (BCI) focuses public attention on the fight against oncological diseases. At the Heart and Brain Center of Excellence in Pleven we have the only Gamma Knife in Bulgaria for the treatment of all types of tumours in the head and the latest generation linear accelerator, explained the cancer surgery specialist.

– Dr Ivanov, on 4 February we celebrated the World Cancer Day. Why is BCI dedicating an entire month to cancer?

– Cancers are the second most common cause of death in developed countries, making them extremely socially significant. The fight against cancer is very complex and requires serious efforts from both health professionals and patients. Therefore, patient awareness of the problems associated with these diseases is very important and the more informed they are, the more successful their treatment will be. If this interview motivates more people to seek specialist advice, then our efforts have borne fruit.

You can read the full interview here.