Minister of Health Jelena Borovinić Bojović met with Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Albertovich Murashko. The meeting noted that Russia is ready to cooperate with Montenegro in the field of healthcare. The ministers met on the sidelines of the WHO European conference on tackling NCDs through digital solutions in Moscow.

Minister Borovinić Bojović thanked for the warm welcome and congratulated Russia on the successful production of vaccines against the coronavirus.

Minister Borovinić Bojović proposed the formalization of cooperation between Montenegro and Russia in the upcoming period in several specialist areas of medicine.

Minister Murashko expressed Russia's readiness to help Montenegro in the context of digitalization and development of updated and easily usable registries of chronic noncommunicable diseases, which is the focus of the conference in Moscow.

The conference aims are threefold: to identify how the challenges to NCD response brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic can be addressed through digital solutions; to disseminate good practices and innovations in the use of digital health for surveillance, prevention and control of NCDs; and to determine how WHO can support countries in successfully implementing digital health solutions for NCDs and build back better in the face of the pandemic.

Almost all registries of noncommunicable chronic diseases in Montenegro are outdated, which is why it is necessary to tackle this problem, said Minister Borovinić Bojović and emphasised that she believes that the digitalization of the medical chart is one of the first steps.

We saw in Russia that it is possible to get verified and reliable information in almost one click. That is what Montenegro strives for, she said.

The ministers exchanged views and experiences regarding the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, aware of the risks of new strains that are still being investigated. Minister Borovinić Bojović thanked for the cooperation in this area so far.