Muscat – The Royal Hospital launched an app to help disseminate accurate information about organ transplant and help encourage a culture of organ donation in the sultanate on Sunday.

Called ‘Ataauka Hayia 8’, which translates to ‘Your donation saves the lives of 8‘, the app was unveiled under the auspices of H E Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Sa’eedi, Minister of Health, at The Royal Hospital.

He said the app, which is the first of its kind in the Arab world, is aimed at correcting misconceptions about organ donation.

The app will help raise awareness about this important issue by providing reliable information, data and expert opinions, including defining the mechanism for organ donation in the sultanate, highlighting the consequences of trade in human organs, correcting misperceptions of post-mortem organ donation, and confirming the conditions for donation from relatives.

H E Dr Sa’eedi informed that one brain-dead donor can save lives of eight people and urged citizens and residents to get acquainted with the app and register in the ‘Shifa’ application for posthumous organ donation. Shifa was launched in 2021.

Since its launch in December, 17 kidney transplant surgeries from brain-dead donors have been performed at The Royal Hospital and Sultan Qaboos University Hospital.

Currently there are more than 3,000 kidney failure patients and others on dialysis.

According to Dr Neven bint Ibrahim al Kalbani, head of Organ Transplant Department at The Royal Hospital and vice-president of Omani Association for Organ Transplantation, the hospital has performed four organ transplant procedures this year – two in children and two in adults.