Announcing the Winner of the 2022 Schrier Award
Healthcare professionals from the Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, Belarus, and the Universitatsklinikum Charité, Germany involved in the ISN SRC Program
The ISN is pleased to announce this year’s recipient of the Schrier Award, which recognizes the most deserving partnership from recently graduated ISN Sister Renal Centers (SRC) Program and ISN-TTS Sister Transplant Centers Program pairs.
Please join us in congratulating the winner of the 2022 Schrier Award, the SRC Belarus-Germany pair:
- Emerging center: Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, Minsk, Belarus (BelMAPE)
- Supporting center: Universitatsklinikum Charité, Berlin, Germany
Through the ISN SRC Program, the centers collaborated to improve kidney pathology services at the emerging center in Belarus and throughout the country. BelMAPE now has the capacity to train another center from the region, and a preliminary agreement has been reached to continue as an SRC Trio partnership with a hospital in Georgia.
Six years of teamwork through the program has enabled BelMAPE to:
- Introduce the use of SLEDD and citrate anticoagulation in critically ill patients in ICUs
- Increase the number of kidney transplant operations and successfully manage high-risk patients
- Create a kidney pathology school comprising five qualified and experienced pathologists
- Perform electronic microscopy in adult patients
- Improve follow-up of kidney transplant out-patients
Another significant impact of the partnership was recognizing the need for a continuing medical education program, which was implemented: BelMape received 32 visits from Belarusian specialists and hosted 13 visits from specialists at the Charité center who delivered lectures and masterclasses. With support from the ISN, they organized and hosted four meetings; three international and one local. Specialists from BelMAPE attended WCN’17 and the “Clinical Transplantation Day” conference in Barcelona in 2019.
BelMAPE also implemented an internet platform for fast and safe communication during the pandemic. The platform facilitated clinical-pathology meetings, lectures, and daily consultations on complex cases between the centers. Clinical-case discussions and clinic-pathology meetings have continued between the centers on this platform since the pair officially graduated.
A fellow from BelMAPE commented on his and his colleagues’ experience of a short internship at Charité, “Undoubtedly the best medical educational experience we’ve ever had. The knowledge we got there and the motivation we acquired will surely work for our personal and our patients’ benefit.”
The ISN looks forward to hearing from BelMAPE on future kidney care progress in Belarus through the SRC Trio Program.
