About Dr Ulana Suprun

Ulana Suprun, MD

Acting Minister of Health of Ukraine (2016-2019)

Dr. Suprun was born to the Ukrainian-American Jurkiw family in Detroit, Michigan. She graduated from Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Schools, received a BS in Biology from Wayne State University and was awarded her MD from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine in 1989. In 1991 she married Marko Suprun, a Canadian citizen who later became a naturalized United States citizen. She is a Board Certified Radiologist who worked in both private and academic settings, eventually becoming the Vice Director of Medical Imaging of Manhattan in New York, NY and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pathology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, also in New York.

In November 2013, Dr. Suprun and her husband Marko moved to Kyiv, Ukraine during the events of Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity, which ultimately led to the downfall of the pro-Kremlin government. She worked as a volunteer physician to treat injured protestors during the revolution. In response to Russia’s subsequent annexation of Crimea and initiation of war in Ukraine’s eastern regions, in her capacity as Director of Humanitarian Initiatives of the Ukrainian World Congress, she founded the NGO Patriot Defence, an organization that provides tactical medical training and distributed NATO Standard Improved First Aid kits to more than 30,000 soldiers, trained over 400 combat medics and 450 doctors in trauma care.

On July 11, 2015, President Petro Poroshenko deemed Dr. Suprun’s work as being “in the state’s interest” and conferred citizenship to both Ulana and Marko, stating, “your efforts saved thousands of lives.” After receiving Ukrainian citizenship, Dr. Suprun continued her work with Patriot Defence while also serving as an unpaid consultant to the Parliamentary Committee on Health starting in September 2015. At the same time, she

founded and was appointed director of the School of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine.

In early July 2016, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman offered Dr. Suprun the position of First Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine. Her nomination was publicly supported by President Petro Poroshenko and approved by Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers on July 22, 2016. Five days later she was appointed Acting Minister of Health.

In her position as Acting Minister, Dr. Suprun successfully led an effort to reform and modernize Ukraine’s healthcare system, culminating in passage of key reform legislation in October 2017. The reform is based on the principle of creating a single payer system with a budgetary funded national health insurance, providing universal healthcare coverage, and raising the quality of care to meet international standards. The new philosophy of Ukraine’s healthcare system, that “money follows the patient,” came into effect with the creation of the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU), providing state financed health insurance for all Ukrainians. In addition, the Ministry of Health implemented a successful national procurement program for pharmaceuticals and medical devices (adopted by parliament in 2015) through international organizations such as UNDP and Crown Agents, which cut corruption and saved the state budget 40% (or over $50 million dollars each year). These savings were then used to procure more medicines.

Other key elements of the reform are the first ever pharmaceutical reimbursement program, known as “Accessible Medicines” that provides medicines to patients with chronic diseases like asthma, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases at no cost to the patient, or with a minimal co-pay and the creation of a National Public Health Center and its local affiliates which provide public health services, monitoring, and implementing public health policy.

After leaving the ministry, Dr. Suprun founded the NGO ArcUA, which publishes books and an online journal www.arc.ua in both Ukrainian and English languages. The organization’s mission is to tell stories about Ukrainians, who they were, are or can be. The ability to focus on and deeply explore a subject, to luxuriate in the discovery of something new and to find there a new meaning in the familiar, is a skill that is waning in this world of sound bites and 30 second videos. The publications invite readers to spend some time listening, so that they hear the whispers of the universe. Prometheus gave humanity the gift of fire, but the Age of Heroes ended long ago. It is up to readers and thinkers to keep the flames of curiosity alight. The stories on ARC are an invitation to leave the cave and look at the world from a different perspective.

Dr. Suprun and her husband currently live in Kyiv, Ukraine.

On Feb. 24, 2022, Putin’s army began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s unjust war against Ukraine is a crime against humanity. Putin’s army is deliberately and knowingly targeting civilians, residential communities, schools, maternity buildings and hospitals. The cities of Mariupol, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy have been carpet bombed by Russia’s ground and air forces.

Local fire and rescue workers of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine are the first on scene conducting search and rescue operations and extinguishing fires. Ukraine’s First Responders have been working 24/7, rescuing families from damaged buildings. They have saved thousands of lives.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, fire and rescue units from around the USA answered the call to help New York and Washington, D.C. manage their responses to the emergency. Ukraine’s fire and rescue units need our help today.

Dr. Suprun and Marko Suprun have created the initiative SESU Rescue, a coordinating center that provides life-saving equipment to the State Emergency Services of Ukraine including medical supplies, communication devices to enhance their capacity, personal protective equipment to keep them safe as well as backend office support to enhance their digital infrastructure.

SESU Rescue is made up of civilian volunteers providing evacuation, medical, search and rescue support to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service personnel as they are deployed to sites that have been bombed or damaged as a result of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

You can support their work by donating to Foundation Ukraine.