Dr. Yeltay Rakhmanov obtained a medical doctor’s degree from Western Kazakhstan Marat Ospanov State Medical University in 2008. He started a career as a University Lecturer at the Department of Social Medicine and Health Care Management. Then awarded the Lane Kirkland Fellowship Program, to conduct research on the “The possibility of adapting Polish experience in the development of a medical and a social rehabilitation to the realities of Kazakh healthcare and higher education”. Together with Professor Michal Musielak (Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poland), they have elaborated a pilot Bachelor of a Physiotherapy program for Kazakh Universities and guidelines for improvement of Civil Society Initiatives to develop a rehabilitation system.

Yeltay has MSc degrees in “Adapted and Preventive Physical activities” and in “Medicine and Surgery” (The University of L’Aquila, Italy) with subsequent licensing (The University of Verona, Italy).  The first master’s degree was supported by the Erasmus Mundus TOSCA Scholarship – transfer of European values, skills, and knowledge to Central Asian countries. This time, under the supervision of Professor Guido Macchiarelli and Professor Marco Valenti, he coordinated the project: “Development of Preventive and Adapted Sport in Kazakhstan from medical, social and legal perspectives” in collaboration with JSC “Center for International programs” administrator of the “Bolashaq” International Scholarship of the President of Kazakhstan. By receiving guidance from Professor Leila Fabiani, he worked on his master’s thesis on: “Organizational and Societal Readiness to Implement “Exercise for Prescription” Initiative in Healthcare Settings of Aral Sea Area of the Republic of Kazakhstan”.

Yeltay obtained PhD degree in “Sports Medicine” from Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. He conducted his research on “Precartilaginous stem cells chondrogenic differentiation” at Biological and Regenerative Medicine Centre of Tongji Hospital in Professor Hongbo You’s team. During his doctoral studies he was also involved in clinical activities in hospital wards, outpatient clinics where he mainly interested in sports trauma rehabilitation and recovery after stem cells therapy due to cartilage defect. During the break between his research and clinical activities, Yeltay volunteered as an Instructor at Wuhan Union and Tongji Hospital – International Students’ Surgical Society of China. He led master classes, delivered lectures on management and rehabilitation of sports trauma and organized Career days in the department of Orthopedics, Sports Medicine, Regenerative Medicine.

In 2016-2017 he has post-graduate specialization at Pomeranian University of Applied Sciences (Poland) in Pedagogy and Didactics in Bio-Medical Training. Together with Ari Ari Foundation, he worked on the Project “Development of rehabilitation in isolated areas of Central Asia”. In this project, where he prepared distance-learning program in Hippotherapy and manuals for application of Virtual Learning Environments in rehabilitation, especially, implementation of telerehabilitation practice in Central Asian isolated regions.

Before joining NUSOM, Yeltay worked as a Researcher, Visiting Researcher at MAGI Group where he was involved in research, educational and internalization activities and supervised educational/research activities for incoming visiting researchers. Yeltay participated in the following research projects: “Genetic, epigenetic mechanisms of physical activities in individuals with genetic obesity”, “Improving Quality of Life of patients with genetic and rare disorders”. These projects were carried out in collaboration with European Biotechnology Thematic Network Association and Alliance for Health Promotion and supported by grants from Autonomous Province of Trento, European Commission.

Biomechanics, Epigenetics, and Genetics of Kazakh national sports players, Biomechanics of Triathletes; Community-based health promotion and rehabilitation; Injuries rehabilitation solutions for individuals living in isolated areas of Central Asia; Tele-Fitness; Tele-Rehabilitation.