Zina Semenovskaya lives with her husband and three young children in the SF Bay Area, where she works as an Emergency Room doctor – and she treats patients in Ukraine, where she was born, via NATAN’s telemedicine project, which permits physicians overseas to diagnose and prescribe treatments for people in Ukraine.
Working with NATAN has been an excellent choice, she says. “It’s a small NGO with a lot of experience in global health. Of the NGOs I’ve worked with, they’re very organized. Clinics run well, communication is very clear. Patients are ready to be seen – despite being in an active war zone.” For example, she says, “I’ve been in clinics and I’ll lose contact, because there’s active bombing, and they have to go to the shelter. Twenty minutes later, they come back up and we’ll continue.”
Zina emigrated to the States as a little girl and was always interested in medicine and health care. She’s involved in telemedicine with her US patients, so working with patients in Ukraine didn’t seem that much of a leap, especially given her fluency in Russian and “good-enough” Ukrainian. Patients she sees in Ukraine mainly require primary care, with some acute care mixed in.
“The personal connection is very powerful,” she says. “it’s wild that a girl born in Kiev, whose family fled antisemitism, is working with an Israeli nonprofit in Kiev!”
As a NATAN volunteer, Zina participates in two or three clinics each month – even though the time difference means that she’s practicing in the middle of the night. (She starts her clinic hours at 11pm.)
That said, international medical care is complex, especially as drug names and systems of measurement and dosing differ profoundly. “Thank God for Google translate!”
“I went into medicine because I want to do global health. I did a lot, but now, with three kids, it’s hard to get away for a chunk of time. To do global health, global medicine from my house, and to help Ukraine – it’s an incredible opportunity.”
“I wonder sometimes, what am I doing? I can’t do anything too medically complex – but people are so grateful that a doctor can talk to them, they think I’m in Kiev – when I say I’m in American, they say what, a doctor in the US is talking to us?”
“I really love it. With everything that’s going on in the world, I didn’t know what I could do to help or change anything. This is something small I can do to contribute.”
NATAN gratefully acknowledges Zina’s dedicated service, and welcomes inquiries from physician-volunteers fluent in Russian or Ukrainian.
Telemedicine in Ukraine
The war has imposed significant challenges on Ukraine’s healthcare system. In Eastern Ukraine, with shortages of medical equipment and essential personnel, the situation is particularly difficult.
To address this gap, NATAN leveraged telemedicine to provide essential health services in conflict zones. Dedicated volunteer doctors from Israel and the USA, fluent in Russian and/or Ukrainian, provide online medical consultations to residents displaced by war. Each doctor volunteers for two to three hours, weekly or biweekly. To date, NATAN provided telemedicine services to over 700 patients.
NATAN’s partners in this project include the Israeli Medical Mission, ZiphyCare, the Ukriane-based humanitarian organization Zgraya Association, and dedicated volunteers like Dr. Zina Semenovskaya, profiled in this Volunteer Spotlight.
