Denys Skoryi (; born April 16, 1979) is a surgeon, oncologist, professor, and politician from Kharkiv, Ukraine. For almost 20 years, Skoryi has been working in different Ukrainian medical facilities as a physician, surgeon, oncologist, and manager. In 2016, he became one of the youngest regional medical facility CEOs in Ukraine, when he overhauled the Kharkiv Regional Center of Oncology. Skoryi gained notoriety and political weight, turning the facility to one of the best, pioneering state-of-the-art medical procedures, and cutting the facility’s original mortality rate by more than a factor of two by 2020. Skoryi accomplished this by raising additional public money for the Center from local businesses and inviting doctors from all over Ukraine to join his team. In 2020, Skoryi joined Bloc Svitlychna Together!, a political party led by Yuliya Svitlychna and was elected to the Kharkiv Oblast Council of VIII convocation in order to influence the distribution of government funds for regional medicine, including channeling more funding for the Regional Center of Oncology. In 2013 and 2014, Skoryi acquired international grants from the International Surgical Society and Japanese Hepato Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery Society. In 2015, Skoryi received the Saint Luke Medal, a medal awarded to leading Ukrainian physicians and surgeons.
From 2004 to 2008, Skoryi worked in the Central Hospital in Valky, Ukraine and the Institute of General and Urgent Surgery of the National Medical Academy of Ukraine (NMAU) in Kharkiv, Ukraine. From 2008 until 2016, Skoryi was a senior research fellow and leading researcher at the department of liver surgery of the Institute of General and Urgent Surgery of the NMAU. In 2013, Skoryi acquired his Doctor of Sciences degree. From 2016 and as of 2021, Skoryi is a professor at the oncology department of the Kharkiv National Medical University and the CEO of the Kharkiv Regional Center of Oncology.
Personal life and family
Skoryi was born on April 16, 1979, in Kharkiv, Ukraine. He is married to Iryna Skora (). The couple has two daughters, Christina (Кристина) (born on 12 March 2019) and Vlada (Влада), and a son (born on 1 June 2022) whose name is unknown.
Education
In 2002, Skoryi graduated with a bachelor's degree with honors from the Kharkiv National Medical University. From 2002 to 2004, Skoryi held an internship at the Institute of General and Urgent Surgery of the National Medical Academy of Ukraine (NMAU) () in Kharkiv and in the Central Hospital of Valky, Ukraine (distance education).
In 2008, Skoryi graduated early from the Institute of General and Urgent Surgery of the NMAU in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Upon his graduation, he acquired the Candidate of Sciences degree, which is the first of the two scientific degrees in some post-Soviet countries and may be recognized as the Doctor of Philosophy degree.
In 2013, Skoryi acquired his Doctorate in Sciences degree, which is a higher doctoral degree and the highest of the two scientific degrees in some post-Soviet countries.
Career
Medical and teaching career (2004–present)
From 2004 to 2005, Skoryi worked as a surgeon in the Central Hospital in Valky, Ukraine. In 2005, he transferred to the Institute of General and Urgent Surgery of the National Medical Academy of Ukraine (NMAU) () in Kharkiv, Ukraine, where he worked in this capacity until 2008.
In 2008–2013, Skoryi was a senior research fellow and in 2013–2016, a leading researcher at the department of liver surgery of the Institute of General and Emergency Surgery of the NMAU. In 2011, Skoryi became a part of a medical team which was one of the first in Ukraine to perform bloodless surgeries on livers, split liver resections, extended and multivisceral liver resection. For these surgeries, the team invented a gas-jet surgical scalpel, which cuts the tissue with carbon dioxide.
From 2007 to 2015, Skoryi took part in various medical training courses in Ukraine and abroad, including Russia, China, Austria, Japan, Germany, and South Korea.
From 2016 and as of 2021, Skoryi teaches at the oncology academic department of the Kharkiv National Medical University and is a chief executive officer (CEO) of the municipal nonprofit Regional Center of Oncology () in Kharkiv.
From 2018, Skoryi was a chief researcher in the Ukrainian branch of the multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company AstraZeneca.
As of 2021, Skoryi co-authored and registered 12 medicinal patents, published 111 scientific articles in medical periodicals, and released 4 monographs.
CEO of the Kharkiv Regional Oncology Center (2016–present)
Appointment to the position
The Kharkiv Regional Center of Oncology () is a medical facility in Kharkiv that provides medical services for cancer patients.
In 2016, an inspection from Kharkiv Oblast Council (Kharkiv Regional Council) stated that the Center was in "emergency condition"; its management was corrupt and provided dubious medical care. The previous management was fired and the Center was reorganized as a municipal nonprofit enterprise under the name of the Regional Center of Oncology.
Through voting of the Kharkiv Oblast Council, Skoryi was elected the new CEO of the Center. He was elected for a 5-year term and became one of the youngest regional medical facility CEOs in Ukraine. He brought a new team of doctors with him to occupy managerial and other positions.
When the new team came to manage the Regional Oncology Center, two of its hospital buildings were reported as half destroyed and in need of a complete renovation. The Center lacked modern medical equipment. At the time, the medical facility was considered the worst of Ukrainian oncology centers.
Funding issues and political opposition
In 2016, when the Kharkiv Oblast Council reorganized the old Oncological Center into the Regional Center of Oncology, they promised to support the new facility on an administrative level and provide funds for its further development.
Since 2017, the Kharkiv regional government funded the staff's wages, hospital's utilities, and maintenance of the facility. As time passed, the management of the Center did not get any additional government funding to pay for buildings renovations or new equipment. Instead of providing support, regional authorities sent numerous inspections to check the facility, which interfered with the hospital's workflow and did not result in any positive changes. According to Skoryi, this and other regional authorities' actions towards the Center, such as delays in wages and in providing other promised funds, were signs of intentional pressure from the local government. On the other hand, the Healthcare Department of the Kharkiv Oblast Council stated they were doing enough to support the facility, their inspections were focused on benefitting the establishment in the future, and the hospital's management would not cooperate.
Skoryi and his team maintained and developed the new facility with the help of some non-governmental funds donated by public organizations, volunteers, and other Ukrainian doctors and medical facilities. The Regional Oncology Center's management opened new departments to create adequate surgical and research areas and patients' wards. Skoryi's team formed the facility's International Board of Trustees, which included several members of public organizations.
Eventually, the local authorities provided some additional funding to the facility. The moneys were allocated to the Center through a 2017 tender in order to do partial renovations in one of the Center's buildings. The regional authorities also voiced their plans to fund other renovations with the help of the European Investment Bank. However, later the Center was extracted from the list of facilities for renovation due to unprovided necessary documentation, although according to Skoryi all the necessary documentation was in fact provided.
In 2020, the Oncology Center's main source of funding was the Ukrainian National Healthcare Service () as well as donations from volunteers, public organizations, private companies and medical workers and facilities.
In addition to other issues, on several occasions, the new management was hindered by the Healthcare Department of the Kharkiv Oblast Council (). They lobbied their own managers for the Center's authority body and would not cooperate on the coordination of the facility's schedule. In November 2017, a new bill was passed by Verkhovna Rada of Ukrainian (Parliament of Ukraine), which allowed hospital administrators to manage their facilities on their own. In particular, they were allowed to personally coordinate the hospital schedule, hire or fire people, as well as to control wages, and so on. Nevertheless, these activities could still be partially overseen by regional government. Thus, while most of the other hospital directors received freedom in their facilities, the Healthcare Department still attempted to interfere with Skoryi's activity as Center's director.
In connection to all of these issues, Skoryi was in open conflict with the Kharkiv Regional Council's Healthcare Department and led active discussions and negotiations with them in regard to his facility all through 2017. In his fight, he received strong support from Ukrainian politician, lawyer, and at the time National Deputy of the Healthcare Department of Verkhovna Rada, Iryna Sysoyenko and Governor of Kharkiv Oblast in 2016–2019, Yuliya Svitlychna.
Regional Oncology Center's development and achievements (2016–present)
Under Skoryi's management, the Regional Oncology Center team adopted internationally acclaimed treatment and workflow principles and medical protocols. Its patients started to receive modern and individual treatment and prescriptions. The new team started to work in partnership with international oncology establishments and specialists and to perform some unique and complex surgeries in Ukraine, some being a rare practice even for international facilities. They also started to receive invitations to perform surgeries abroad.
In 2017, for the first time in Ukrainian history, to conceal post-surgical defects on patient's thorax, the Regional Center of Oncology team replaced the defect with a special metallic construction and moved a part of a back muscle (without cutting it out) and skin tissue from patient's back to his chest. Also in 2017, the Regional Center of Oncology team invented and were the first in the world to use the new methodology of the transcaval access to the inferior vena cava (a large vein that carries the deoxygenated blood from the lower and middle body into the right atrium of the heart). The new methodology consisted of crossing the vein below the place affected by a tumor, lift it up, and cut out the tumor. The methodology was invented in order to avoid prosthetics of the inferior vena cava during the surgical removal of tumors. In this particular surgery, the method also helped save patient's kidney and nerves, that are responsible for pelvic movements.
In first four months in charge of the new facility, Skoryi and his team opened several new hospital departments, including the department of hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery (which focuses on medical procedures related to liver, pancreas, and biliary tract), department of anesthesiology, and an intensive care unit. They created new surgery rooms, the department of diagnosis, and reorganized administrative departments. The facility's medical equipment was also modernized. From January to May 2017, the Center enrolled 6,096 patients and the staff performed 1,041 surgeries, meanwhile the post-surgical mortality dropped almost by half. By November 2017, overall hospital mortality dropped by 40%.