Oman’s Health Ministry Launches Organ Transplant Educational App

Muscat: The Royal Hospital today launched an educational application for organ transplant to help disseminate accurate information and boost the option of organ donation.

Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Al Sa’eedi, Minister of Health, said that the application, which is the first of its kind in the Arab world, is aimed at correcting misconceptions and wrong information about organ transplants.

Donation from a brain-dead person can save the lives of 8 persons, said Dr. Ahmed, noting that livers and kindness can be donated by living persons.

The ministers pointed out that liver and kidney transplants in the Sultanate of Oman are a successful bid to inculcate the culture of organ donation at a time 3,000 patients are in queue and subsisting on dialysis, which is a psychologically and physically tiring experience.

The minister cautioned that the main factor behind the low rate of organ transplant operations in Oman is the lack of donors. He said that Royal Hospital began kidney transplants in 1988 and the programme is still going on and developing.

Dr.Neven Ibrahim Al Kalbani, Senior Consultant of Pediatric Nephrology and Head of the Organ Transplant Department at the Royal Hospital, told ONA that the Royal Hospital conducted four organ transplant in 2022, two of children and two for adults. Some donors took the initiative of registering to Shifa app for postmortem donation of organs, said Dr. Neven, adding that steps are underway to review the data of donors.

Dr. Neven affirmed that the new app will be a reliable source of news about organ donation.

Meanwhile, Dr. Salman Gharib Al Maawali, a practicing physician, spoke about her experience in organ donation, citing the procedures and stages of operations.

It is noted that the organ transplant app’s previous campaign, launched by the Ministry of Health, has raised the number of people registered at Shifa app, since its induction in December 2021.

The application, condenamed “AttaOka” is financed by Sohar Aluminum, as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) drive. It highlights the company’s role in supporting the health sector and motivating society to go for organ donation.