European Day for Organ Donation and Transplantation was marked at the Military Medical Academy with series of lectures aiming to highlight the importance of organ donation and raise citizen’s awareness in our country.

MMA’s Acting Head Col. Prof. Zoran Segrt gave the introductory lecture and said that since October 10, 1996 EU has been celebrating that day as the Day of organ donation and transplantation and that the necessary conditions are required for the success of transplantation medicine being a top branch of medicine, having stressed that teamwork, great knowledge and commitment of all those involved in this complex process are also needed. He added that important preconditions in order to secure the appropriate people’s awareness level of donation significance should be excellent communication and cooperation not only within the same health institution but also with all institutions and individuals involved in the transplantation program and adopting required legislation.

According to Professor Segrt further intensive promotion of donation program and harmonization of legislation are of great importance for our country in order to eliminate prejudices and misconceptions that accompany this process so that every citizen who is on a waiting list for organ transplantation, and according to statistics there are 1000 of them in Serbia, could have possibility for this kind of treatment. Speaking about the role of the MMA in the development of transplantation medicine in Serbia professor Segrt stated that in addition to the introduction of organ donation pledge program in the Military Medical Academy in 2002, he should emphasize MMA’s results in the field of kidney and bone marrow transplantation, as well as the expected expansion of the transplantation program. He added that the transplantation medicine, although at first sight very difficult and expensive, is also cost-effective because it enables rapid improvement of  transplanted patients life quality, and its remarkable success is reflected in the termination of complex, tedious and expensive diagnostic procedures.

After the introductory address lectures delivered Head of Group of MMA Internal Clinics and coordinator for MMA organ transplantation Col. Prof. Dr. Djoko Maksic, Head of the Center for Solid Organ Transplantation Col. M.Sc. Neven Vavic and Lt Colonel Dr. Dragan Djordjevic from the Clinic for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care of MMA. The lectures also tackled the importance of transplantation medicine and culture of tissues and organ donation in our country. It was pointed to the fact that Serbia, with less than five potential donors per million inhabitants is among the last countries in the region. In order to improve the organization of transplantation in our country the adequate number of organs for our population should be ensured and that means 20 to 25 donors per million inhabitants. Professionalization of the entire process is required thus an increase of donor hospitals number  and training of transplant teams throughout the country are the necessary steps that should be taken at the local and regional level.

The last lecture which was attended by the Dean of the MMA’s Medical Faculty of the University of Defence in Belgrade Colonel Prof. Nebojsa Jovic was dedicated to cadets. They had the opportunity to learn about the importance of transplantation programs, the development of organ donation program and the legislation that accompanies this very demanding process in terms of legal, ethical and professional aspects.