SRC Georgia-Belgium

SRC Georgia-Belgium

Schrier Award

The Schrier Award recognizes the outstanding achievements of graduated Sister Renal Center (SRC) and Sister Transplant Center (STC) pairs. The winner of the 2023 Schrier Award is the SRC Georgia-Belgium Pair:

Emerging Center: Tbilisi State Medical University, Nephrology Development Clinical Center, Tbilisi, Georgia

Supporting Center: Ghent University Hospital, Nephrology Department, Ghent, Belgium

The ISN SRC program supported the advancement of the nephrology service in the Nephrology Development Clinical Center in Tbilisi, Georgia, from 2015-2022 (extended due to COVID-19). At the beginning of the program, the clinic had almost 300 hemodialysis patients (HD) with kidney failure, 25 peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients, and 14 hospital beds. By the end of the program, the Emerging Center runs 80 HD beds with a maximum capacity of 480 HD patients, 40 in-hospital beds, and an increased number of PD patients to 40.

Major achievements in the ISN SRC Program are as follows:

  • Creation of interventional nephrology and multidisciplinary teams for patient care
  • Establishment of AKI, kidney biopsy, and vascular access registries
  • Implementation of SOPs/quality control tools in HD, PD, and post-transplant patient care
  • Introduction of a dialysis nurses’ training program
  • Establishment of local tissue-typing lab: HLA-typing, PRA, and donor-specific flow crossmatch (DSA-FXM) is now possible. For more than 20 years, the blood samples were sent abroad for PRA and crossmatching!
  • Broadened kidney pathology knowledge
  • Initiated pediatric nephrology service: five children on HD, two on PD, and four received kidney transplants from their parents during the last year.

All of the achievements listed above have increased the recognition of the Nephrology Development Clinical Center throughout Georgia, ranking it the number one center for nephrology services in the country.

The Schrier Awardee scientific presentation will be in the ISN Awards Session 2: Roscoe R. Robinson Award and Schrier Award session on Saturday, April 1, 2023, 11:45-12:45 Bangkok time, in MR 110 ABC. The awardees will receive their awards in Plenary Session 4 on Sunday, April 2, 2023, from 10:30-11:30, in Plenary Halls 2-3.