Preparations are underway for a medical forum slated next month, where an advanced laparoscopic liver surgery will be held with the participation of a team of experts from Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), the South Korean ambassador has said.
The ‘Second Korea-Qatar Medical Forum’ will be held on December 4 and 5, South Korean ambassador Heung Kyeong Park said.
The upcoming forum will feature a seminar on hepatobiliary surgery with a panel from the Korean Asan Medical Centre (AMC), Dr Ki Hun Kim and Dr Donghwan Jung, and an advanced laparoscopic liver surgery with the participation of 10 members of the HMC Hepatobiliary Team, comprising senior consultants, doctors, and
surgeons.
According to Park, the first living donor liver transplantation was conducted here in Doha on the occasion of ‘First Korea-Qatar Medical Forum’ held in November last year.
South Korea is a world leader in organ transplantation, carrying out more than 1,200 liver transplants each year. The country has one of the highest liver transplantation success rates in the world.
Last year, experts from HMC and two South Korean hospitals performed complex surgical procedures in Qatar as part of a collaboration to improve healthcare in the two countries.
Doctors from HMC, AMC, and Seoul St Mary’s Hospital (SSMH) successfully completed one liver transplantation, one knee and one hip replacements, and three heart surgeries while breakout sessions were held a day before the actual procedures.
The South Korean embassy noted that the first case of living donor liver transplantation in Qatar was performed jointly by Asan Healthcare System president Dr Sung-Gyu Lee and Professor Hatem Khalaf, clinical lead of HMC liver transplant, with both their teams.
Speaking to Gulf Times recently on medical tourism and South Korea’s potential partnerships with Qatar, Park said special teams in South Korean hospitals “are ready to receive patients from Qatar.”
“Number is slightly increasing,” the ambassador pointed out.
He added that with the progress in medical co-operation between Qatar and South Korea, more Qatari patients are expected to go to South Korea for their medical needs and chronic treatment.
“We are receiving more private patients from Qatar, while government patients are quite less but we are witnessing stronger co-operation ties in the field of medicine between Qatar and South Korea,” the ambassador said.