On Wednesday, the Da Nang General Hospital entered into a cooperative agreement on healthcare technology transfer with the Japanese Doctors' Association.

Accordingly, under the help of the Team Medical Rounds organisation along with the Vietnamese and Japanese Doctors’ Association, the Da Nang hospital will send its staff involving in organ transplantation service to Japan to attend professional training courses.

The intention of the cooperative agreement between Da Nang and Japan is to help the local hospital realise its goal of performing its first liver transplant by 2020, and establishing the Organ and Stem Cell Transplantation Centre in the future.

At the signing ceremony, Dr Le Duc Nhan, Director of the hospital, highlighted the significance of the promotion of organ transplantation and the establishment of future Organ and Stem Cell Transplantation Centre at the hospital in meeting the growing demand from patients in Da Nang and neighbouring localities, as well as helping these patients save their times and costs.

A liver transplant is a surgical procedure performed to replace a diseased liver with a healthy liver from another person. A liver transplant is recommended for individuals who have serious liver dysfunction and will not be able to live without having the liver replaced.

To date, liver transplants have yet to be done in hospitals in the central region and highlands.