27/11/2025
World-class kidney treatment soon available in Mindanao
DAVAO CITY โ The Southern Philippine Medical Center Kidney and Transplant Institute, set for soft opening on November 28, will get world-class facilities for kidney patients of Mindanao.
With the availability of quality care and treatment, local kidney patients wonโt need to travel to Metro Manila for advanced treatment.
โWe aim to be the NKTI (National Kidney and Transplant Institute) of the south, so we donโt need to go to NKTI,โ says Dr. Maria Theresa Bad-ang, head of the SPMC Kidney and Transplant Institute.
With the opening of the SKTI center, they will have an HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) laboratory, which performs tests for donor-recipient match for transplants.
โDinhi na ta(here we can do)mag tissue-typing, cross matching at the same time TRA (transplant recipient antibodies) testing. Dili na kailangan ipadala ang dugo sa Manila para i-tissue type, diri na ang cross-matching para sa donor and recipient so maka-avail na ang taga Mindanao para sa ilang transplant,โ Bad-ang said.
(No need to send blood to Manila for tissue type; we can do the cross-matching here for the donor and recipient, so those in Mindanao can have their transplant here.)
The urology department will also have state-of-the-art kidney treatments, and their specialists are being trained on the use of Da Vinci surgical robots.
Bad-ang said that the SKTI is a sister kidney transplant center of the University of Barcelona in Spain, Singapore General Hospital, and the National Kidney Foundation.
โOur services are on par with the world; it is world-class,โ Bad-ang said.
She said that SKTI is competing with what is already there in the world.
โUnsa naa sa Singapore, dapat i-offer namo, unsa naa sa Spain, i-offer namo. Ang among transplant nephrologist was trained in Spain,โ Bad-ang said.
(What is in Singapore, we will offer; what is in Spain, we will also offer. Our transplant nephrologist is trained in Spain.)
She added that soon SKTI will also offer liver and bone marrow transplants. As SKTI will not just be for kidney transplants, but all types of transplants.
โWe are sending one gastroenterologist to be a liver transplant specialist. We already have a liver transplant surgeon,โ Bad-ang said.
Bad-ang said the SKTI is a P1-billion project, complete with all the facilities. โWhen you visit, it will not be your ordinary hospital,โ she added.
The SKTI has a 100-bed capacity dialysis center, facilities for peritoneal dialysis, kidney transplant, an immunology laboratory, a urology department, nephrology training, pediatric nephrology, and nursing training for dialysis.
The opening of the SKTI at the SPMC will make the medical center an apex hospital that can offer more health services to the public. It is one of the 17 institutes inside the SPMC. (PIA/RGA)
