PITTSBURGH, Dec. 14, 2011 – The Asian Centre for Liver Diseases & Transplantation (ACLDT), based in Singapore, and UPMC announced today that they have signed an interim service agreement to collaborate on the establishment of a comprehensive transplant center that will serve patients throughout Asia and the Middle East.
ACLDT, established in 1994, is one of Asia’s foremost liver centers, with outpatient facilities and a dedicated in-patient liver ward and intensive care unit to complement its successful living donor liver transplantation program. Based in Gleneagles Hospital, ACLDT is the first private medical center in Southeast Asia to perform nearly 190 living-donor liver transplants.
The proposed comprehensive transplant center, to be owned and operated by ACLDT, will offer transplantation capabilities in liver, kidney, stem cell and bone marrow, enhancing ACLDT’s current treatments for more than 8,000 patients a year.
Under this interim agreement—the first step in what is expected to be a broader collaboration—UPMC will help ACLDT with its business and technology planning, as well as with clinical consultations. A pioneer in solid organ transplant procedures, UPMC’s surgeons have performed more than 17,000 such operations, including liver, heart, kidney and multi-visceral, at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute in Pittsburgh. UPMC also operates ISMETT, one of the leading organ transplant centers in Italy.
“UPMC is world-renowned for its transplant expertise and advanced technology, including electronic medical records and telemedicine. ACLDT is greatly honored to collaborate with one of the top medical institutions in the United States, and I believe this collaboration will elevate the quality of medical care and health care technology in Asia and the Middle East,” said Dr. Tan Kai Chah, ACLDT’s lead surgeon and executive chairman. The collaboration is expected to help ACLDT provide its services to more patients, widen its scope of transplant offerings, enhance the quality of clinical outcomes and improve operational efficiencies, he added.
“We are excited at the prospect of working with ACLDT’s fine team of surgeons and physicians to establish comprehensive transplant care for more patients. This partnership in a new country for UPMC will generate knowledge and resources that support our health care mission in western Pennsylvania and beyond,” said Charles Bogosta, president of UPMC’s International and Commercial Services Division.
“Following the success of ISMETT in Italy, one of the most advanced transplant centers in Europe, UPMC views the partnership with ACDLT as an opportunity to bring to Southeast Asia its unique expertise in providing excellence in patient-centered health care,” said Bruno Gridelli, M.D., medical and scientific director of ISMETT.