ODISSeA: launch of the postgraduate studies to train experts on organ donation in Southeast Asia
About three hundred experts from Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand have started their postgraduate studies ODISSeA (Organ Donation Innovative Strategies in Southeast Asia), a pioneer initiative led by the University of Barcelona to launch an academic program focused on organ donation and aimed at health professionals in Southeast Asia. These experts are the first generation of professionals to complete the postgraduate program ODISSeA, certificated and equivalent to 30 ECTS credits.
About three hundred experts from Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand have started their postgraduate studies ODISSeA (Organ Donation Innovative Strategies in Southeast Asia), a pioneer initiative led by the University of Barcelona to launch an academic program focused on organ donation and aimed at health professionals in Southeast Asia. These experts are the first generation of professionals to complete the postgraduate program ODISSeA, certificated and equivalent to 30 ECTS credits.
This training proposal -adapted to the requirements of the higher education European space (EEES)- will help promote the institutional collaboration to improve donation rates and establish a sustainable system regarding the training on organ donation in this Asian counties, where donation rates are lower than one donor per every million inhabitants.
Improving professional skills and raising awareness among society
ODISSeA is one of the initiatives aiming to improve the health culture in the field of donation and transplantation internationally which have been promoted by Martí Manyalich, lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB, transplant advisor in Hospital Clinic de Barcelona and president of the DTI Foundation - Donation & Transplantation Institute, located in the Barcelona Science Park.
ODISSeA is presented as a crucial project to raise awareness and train experts highly skilled in knowledge and attitude- able to coordinate the process of organ donation efficiently in countries with not many science models in this field of biomedicine and health.
During the next nine months, the participants in the postgraduate degree will improve their professional skills through a methodology combined with several educational strategies (online modules, international assessment seminars) to transfer knowledge from the academic environment to the clinical practice. During the training process, attendants will receive the support from international experts and local teaching stuff who will have previously completed the ODISSeA Train the Trainers, carried out in May 2019 in Barcelona.