ODISSeA: a pioneer initiative to improve organ donation in Southeast Asian countries
In Malaysia, there is one organ donor for each million inhabitants while in Philippines this rate is even lower and it only reaches 0.1. Promoting training for highly specialized experts in the field of organ donation in Southeast Asian countries is the main aim of the training program Train the trainers, to take place from May 13 to 17 in Barcelona, under the direction of Martí Manyalich, lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB and president of the DTI Foundation - Donation & Transplantation Institute, located in the Barcelona Science Park.
In Malaysia, there is one organ donor for each million inhabitants while in Philippines this rate is even lower and it only reaches 0.1. Promoting training for highly specialized experts in the field of organ donation in Southeast Asian countries is the main aim of the training program Train the trainers, to take place from May 13 to 17 in Barcelona, under the direction of Martí Manyalich, lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB and president of the DTI Foundation - Donation & Transplantation Institute, located in the Barcelona Science Park.
This training activity for biomedicine experts is part of the project ODISSeA (Organ Donation Innovative Strategies in Southeast Asia), a pioneer initiative led by the University of Barcelona to promote an academic program on organ donation for health professionals in eight universities in Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand.
This training approach -adapted to the requirements of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) -will promote the institutional collaboration to improve donation rates and set a sustainable system for training on organ donation in these Asian countries. In the project ODISSeA, co-funded by the European Union program Erasmus+, other universities take part: the University of Bologna (Italy), the University of Zagreb (Croatia), DTI Foundation and the company Dinamia (Spain), expert on consulting and assessment of social projects.
Improving organ donation rates in Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand
These days, Spain is the leader regarding organ donation worldwide and the rate reaches 48 donors per million inhabitants. The lack of organs is the main obstacle in this clinical practice worldwide and that is why improving organ donation rates is so essential, as well as raising awareness among society and promoting training of experts. In this context, the improvement of health culture in the field of donation and transplantation internationally is the core of several projects launched by Martí Manyalich, adjunct lecturer at the Department of Surgery and Surgical Specializations of the UB and consultant on transplantations in Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.
In this international outreach context, ODISSeA started its journey in a first meeting held on March in the city of Davao (Philippines). Therefore, all participants in the first edition of the ODISSeA training course in Barcelona -specifically, thirty experts from Philippines, Malaysia and Myanmar- will now improve their knowledge and work on the right tools to become trainers in organ donation in their university institution, through an online and face-to-face training program.
Closing ceremony at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
The activities that are related to the ODDISeA program Train the trainers will finish with an institutional ceremony to take place in the Aula Magna at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB on Friday, May 17, at 1 noon.
The ceremony will be presided over by he dean of the same Faculty, Francesc Cardellach; the lecturer Martí Manyalich, director of the ODISSeA; Ricardo Casaroli, head of the Department of Surgery and Surgical Specializations at the UB; the Philippines Honorary Consul in Barcelona, Chona Abiertas Tenorio, and the representative of the European Commission in Barcelona, Ferran Tarradellas, and will count on the participation of experts who took part in the first edition of the training course.