Campinas hosted for the first time, from October 17th  to 19th, 2019, the XVI Brazilian Congress of Organ Transplants, the largest scientific congress of the area in Latin America and one of the main in the world. In this edition, held at The Royal Palm Hall, the congress was chaired by School of Medical Sciences (SMS) of University of Campinas (Unicamp) professor and nephrologist Marilda Mazzali, and the scientific committee chaired by Ilka de Fátima Santana Ferreira Boin. In this time, 1,700 professionals attended the event with 238 speakers, being 31 international.

The XVI Brazilian Congress of Organ Transplants held in Campinas took place together with the XVIII Luso Brazilian Transplant Congress, the Brazilian Meeting of Transplant Nursing and the Histocompatibility Forum of the Brazilian Association of Histocompatibility. During the three days of the event, 971 scientific papers were presented and Unicamp won an award in the liver transplant category and two awards for best kidney transplant posters.

“Brazil is among the three largest countries in the world in terms of transplantation volume and our congress has become a must-have presence for professionals in the field looking for scientific updating,” said Marilda Mazzali, president of the congress. The event, which is organized by the Brazilian Association of Organ and Tissue Transplants (ABTO), takes place each year in a different city in the country and brought current and relevant themes that were addressed with focus on the multidisciplinary characteristic that permeates the teams in the area.

For Prof. Ilka Boin it was a unique opportunity for students, doctors and professionals from SMS - Unicamp and other reference centers in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo and others Brazilian states to exchange knowledge, especially with representatives from other countries. “Having highly relevant transplant professionals in Brazil as well as representatives of the world's leading services has served not only to update knowledge but also to strengthen friendships,” said Boin.

Several foreign groups met the services of the Unicamp - Hospital de Clínicas and the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO HC - Unicamp), among them, the National Transplant Coordinator of Brazil (Ministry of Health) Dr. Daniela Salomao, accompanied by the Coordinators of Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay.

See the news in Portuguese and more photos here.