DICG Co-Chair, Eric Rondeau and Executive Council Member, Maria Amalia Matamoros will be part of a pannel in a session entitled "Challenges and Opportunities in Transplantation Worldwide."

The session will describe the landscape of solid-organ and stem-cell transplantation in different areas of the world (the Middle East, China and India) highlighting the similarities and differences with transplant activities in the West. The speakers will discuss challenges in histocompatibility testing related to multiple areas, including the disease landscape, donor types and availability (related and unrelated), HLA typing, clinical practices, clinical data management and legal, ethical, and social considerations. The workshop will include three 20-minute presentations followed by a 30-minute panel discussion.

The ISN - TTS Sister Transplant Centers Program is now accepting applications until October 1st, 2021

The program is a joint partnership between the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and The Transplantation Society (TTS) who are the parent organizations of the DICG, to help establish new kidney transplant centers and develop existing kidney transplant programs in emerging countries. Please note that the program is open to all ISN and TTS members. This initiative fosters partnerships between experienced transplant centers in the developed world (Supporting Centers or SCs) and new and developing transplant centers (Emerging Centers or ECs) in low-resource regions, providing a framework and funding for up to six years of collaboration if adequate progress is made.

The Philippine Society of Nephrology (PSN) started a webinar series on ethics and professionalism in November 2020. In the seventh session of the series, held on July 28, 2021, the topic was “Organ Trafficking in the 2020s – A Persisting Challenge for Transplant Professionals.” The ISN graciously agreed to co-host this event and Dr. Agnes Fogo gave the opening remarks. This is a particularly relevant topic for the organization because the Philippines was declared an organ trafficking hotspot by the WHO in 2007. Since then, the PSN has been on the forefront of promoting ethical practices in transplantation.

Dr. Benita Padilla, a DICG Council member and past president of the PSN, described how changes in the regulations in the Philippines more than a decade ago successfully turned the tide against organ trafficking but new challenges continue to crop up. The talk of Dr. Dominique Martin, focusing on how ethical principles can be converted to concrete actions, was particularly relevant in suggesting strategies to combat these new challenges. Dr. Sanjay Nagral and Dr. Guia Crisostomo-Tan contributed other perspectives, noting that there are many commonalities in the ethical challenges that transplant professionals in India and in the Philippines have to face.