Second Korea-Qatar Medical Forum in Dec

Preparations are underway for a medical forum slated next month, wherean advanced laparoscopic liver surgery will be held with theparticipation 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 apanel from the Korean Asan Medical Centre (AMC), Dr Ki Hun Kim and DrDonghwan Jung, and an advanced laparoscopic liver surgery with theparticipation of 10 members of the HMC Hepatobiliary Team, comprisingsenior consultants, doctors, and surgeons.According to Park, the first living donor liver transplantation wasconducted here in Doha on the occasion of ‘First Korea-Qatar MedicalForum’ held in November last year.South Korea is a world leader in organ transplantation, carrying outmore than 1,200 liver transplants each year. The country has one of thehighest liver transplantation success rates in the world. Last year, experts from HMC and two South Korean hospitals performedcomplex surgical procedures in Qatar as part of a collaboration toimprove healthcare in the two countries.Doctors from HMC, AMC, and Seoul St Mary’s Hospital (SSMH) successfullycompleted one liver transplantation, one knee and one hip replacements,and three heart surgeries while breakout sessions were held a day beforethe actual procedures.The South Korean embassy noted that the first case of living donor livertransplantation in Qatar was performed jointly by Asan HealthcareSystem president Dr Sung-Gyu Lee and Professor Hatem Khalaf, clinicallead of HMC liver transplant, with both their teams.Speaking to Gulf Times recently on medical tourism and South Korea’spotential partnerships with Qatar, Park said special teams in SouthKorean 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 Qatarand South Korea, more Qatari patients are expected to go to South Koreafor their medical needs and chronic treatment.“We are receiving more private patients from Qatar, while governmentpatients are quite less but we are witnessing stronger co-operation tiesin the field of medicine between Qatar and South Korea,” the ambassador said.