BMT Program Celebrates Bangalore Partnership

BMT program celebrates Bangalore partnership

The internationally recognized blood and marrow transplantation (BMT) program at the University of Minnesota has an additional address – Manipal Hospital in Bangalore, India. Led by Daniel Weisdorf, professor of medicine and chair of the adult BMT program, this research and clinical care partnership with Manipal is the first of its kind for the University’s physician practice plan, University of Minnesota Physicians.

Frank Cerra, senior vice president for health sciences, and Jonathan Ravdin, head of the Department of Medicine, were present on Oct. 23 for the ceremonial opening of the BMT program at Manipal Hospital. The partnership aims to increase scientific collaboration and training opportunities for students and physicians from Minnesota and India and to provide state-of-the-art cancer care for patients in Bangalore.

To assist Manipal Hospital in establishing the BMT clinic, UMP provided guidance in transplant protocol development, training for Bangalore physicians in Minnesota, and on-site training for BMT nursing staff in Bangalore. Weisdorf has a regular teleconference meeting with the Manipal BMT doctors.  

“This is a great opportunity for global collaboration at a very high level,” says Weisdorf. “We’re pleased to have our partners at Manipal join in providing high quality transplantation therapy for their patients.”

Manipal has performed 10 BMT transplants since the beginning of 2006. It is one of only 12 centers throughout India with this specialty. Doctors Amit Rauthan and Ashish Dixit lead the program; both trained with the BMT faculty in Minnesota. 

On hand at the opening celebration were grateful patients, including 12-year old Anusha, who was cured of aplastic anemia. She likes to paint and draw and wants to be a doctor. 

To date, the Manipal clinic is performing only autologus transplants, which use a patient’s own cells, or perfectly-matched sibling donors. There is a shortage of bone marrow donors in India, which creates challenges for the clinic. But hospitals and the government are trying to increase bone marrow collection in India, as well as umbilical cord blood collection as a possible source for transplants.