An ISN Fellow’s Journey Continues Back in Tanzania and Virtually
Dr. Amar Swali Performs a USG-guided percutaneous kidney biopsy at Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital
Dr. Amar Swali, from Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, is an ISN Fellow who has been receiving training at the Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital in Nadiad, Gujarat, India, since mid-October 2019.
Dr. Amar affirms that he has surpassed his initial goals during the fellowship. He recounts, “The hands-on experience I’ve had has been to a level I could never have dreamed of, and I am lucky my host institution always had that faith in me to allow the supervised interventions that I have done so far.”
The training Amar received under Dr. M. M. Rajapurkar and Dr. Sishir Gang has enhanced his pre-existing interest in kidney disease management, interventional procedures, and kidney transplantation, and has deepened his interest in Nephropathology and lab-based research.
He is currently obtaining hands-on experience in Lymphocyte cross-matching, manual DNA and RNA extraction, and HLA typing. He has recently joined the histopathology team to participate in slide preparation. Under supervision from the hospital’s pathologist, Dr. Swali is learning to improve his diagnostic skills and procedures to benefit patients in his home country.
A recent webinar organized by Nikhil Pereira-Kamath, founder and director of the African Healthcare Network, which featured ISN President Vivek Jha, further inspired Dr. Swali to improve patient care in his home country. He states, “What I have learned will, in due course, enable me to make so many changes in the kidney healthcare scene back home.”
Vivek Jha comments, “We are doing what the ISN’s vision and mission are all about, and I am glad that young colleagues like Amar are finding value in ISN programs.”
