October 2, 2015

The collaboration continues between AGBU and the Yerevan State Medical University
On September 23, a new MRI unit was inaugurated at the Heratsi Hospital in Yerevan thanks to a $1.4 million donation by AGBU Board of Trustees Member Nazar Nazarian, his wife Artemis and their son, AGBU Central Board Member Dr. Levon Nazarian. The ceremony was attended by AGBU President Berge Setrakian, Minister of Education of the Republic of Armenia Armen Ashotyan, Minister of Health of the Republic of Armenia Armen Muradyan and Yerevan State Medical University (YSMU) Rector Mikayel Narimanyan.
The MRI unit is an addition to the AGBU-YSMU Levon and Claudia Nazarian Radiology Center, founded in 2010, and will allow the center to perform medical tests unavailable at other hospitals in Armenia. The new device provides high quality images that enable accurate diagnoses. Narimanyan said that, due to the new MRI unit, doctors will be able to see cardiovascular pathologies at an earlier stage, observing changes, without endovascular interventions, that may lead to heart attack and stroke.

“The machine is a 1.5 Tesla ‘high-field’ unit, and therefore, expands the range of MRI services that the hospital can offer patients,” said Dr. Levon Nazarian, a radiologist and vice chairman of the Department of Radiology at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. “State-of-the-art imaging is essential if Armenia is to be seen as a center of medical excellence.”
During the inauguration, Muradyan highlighted the importance of introducing modern equipment at YSMU, which enables young doctors to work with new technologies used by the world’s best hospitals early in their careers: “These technologies also allow specialists to send digital images to reference hospitals, which means that [Armenians] will be saved the trouble of traveling to other countries for the purpose of diagnosis and will be able to receive the highest quality medical care in their home country, in particular at the diagnosis stage.” He added that in the coming months YSMU expects to receive two more similar devices that will meet the needs of Armenia’s healthcare sector.
Before the start of the ceremony, Setrakian and Narimanyan signed a cooperation agreement to continue the partnership between AGBU and YSMU.