Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1130632
COMMERCIAL 16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 JUNE 2019 AROUND 130 renal patients waiting for a kidney transplant are being monitored on the so- phisticated Traccia software solution at Mater Dei Hospi- tal's Renal Unit. Since the in- troduction of Traccia in 2017, 32 patients received a kidney transplant after their blood composition was compatible with the donated organ. Ten of the kidney donations were received from living donors while 22 were from deceased donors. LifeCycle (Malta) Founda- tion is renewing its sponsor- ship agreement with the Min- istry for Health for the third consecutive year. LifeCycle Founder Alan Curry presented the Foundation's yearly dona- tion of €10,000 to the Head of the Renal Unit Professor Ema- nuel Farrugia in the presence of Charge Head Nurse Paul Calleja, LifeCycle Chairperson Shirley Cefai, Co-ordinator Julian Cefai, and nursing staff. The money covers the running costs of mantaining the Trac- cia data base programme. Traccia is the data base pro- gramme which keeps all the information regarding the kid- ney recipient waiting list. It keeps data and give points ac- cordingly to waiting time, age matching, human tissue typing (HLA) matching, clinical find- ings, hypersensitisation, lack of access, etc. Traccia facili- tates the procedure of finding the right match for renal pa- tient compatible with a kidney donor with better chances of success and longer graft sur- vival, for the satisfaction of the donor and the recipient's ful- filment of life. "As LifeCycle Foundation, we were further encouraged in our efforts when we learnt that through the new Traccia pro- gramme, there is an average of 15 successful kidney trans- plants performed every year," said Alan Curry who 21 years ago founded LifeCycle Chal- lenge. Every year, LifeCycle organ- ises a tough cycling challenge, each time in different coun- tries to generate the necessary funding for LifeCycle Founda- tion's mission, that is to raise money for life saving equip- ment to help persons suffering from renal failure and to raise awareness about Organ Trans- plants here in Malta. This year's Nescafé 3in1 Life- Cycle Challenge will take the participants on a route of 2,000 km from Vietnam, through Laos, and Cambodia ending at the Temples of Angkor Wat, a UNESCO Heritage site. On thanking LifeCycle Foun- dation for their efforts and support, Prof Farrugia said: "Our Renal Unit provides fa- cilities for treating patients with kidney failure who re- quire haemodialysis and peri- toneal dialysis, apart from co- ordinating kidney transplant services. Thanks to the yearly contribution from LifeCy- cle, the Traccia software pro- gramme has been of great sup- port to patients at the Renal Unit." "Renal patients have to un- dergo four hours on dialysis, three times a week, attached to a blood cleaning machine. This is a very aggressive treat- ment which leaves the patient quite debilitated. Through Traccia, apart from facilitating the process, it will also allocate organs to those patients which match most and not only rely on the wait- ing time on the list. Every kid- ney donation is now being run by this new system and this is saving us precious time," ex- plained Charge Nurse Paul Calleja. Funds are collected from both companies and individu- als. Nescafé 3in1 is the title sponsor of LifeCycle Chal- lenge 2019. The Challenge is also being supported by Data- Core, Laferla Insurance, Nexia BT, OzoGroup, Smart Tech- nologies, MGI Malta, Strek, Logografix, Top Choice, MA & A, DSL, BridgePoint, Mal- ta Properties, RS2, Gamesys employees and VJ Salomone (Consumer Lines) Ltd. Donations for Nescafé 3in1 LifeCycle Challenge 2019 can be sent via sms: 5061 7370 = €2.33; 5061 8920 = €6.99; 5061 9229 = €11.65; or via a call to 5160 2020 = €10, 5170 2005 = €15; and 5180 2006 = €25. Bank details are Swift code VALLMTMT, IBAN number MT 18 VALL 22013000000014814521017, Bank name Bank of Val- letta, Account number 14814521017. For further updates and to donate towards LifeCycle Challenge 2019 on www.life- cyclefoundation.com or on Fb: https://www.facebook.com/ LifeCycleChallenge/ LifeCycle renews its support for Traccia software match programme at Renal Unit ETIENNE Goosse, Director General of the European Payments Council (EPC), recently visited Malta to address members of the Payment System Users' Group. This group is a joint committee of the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) together with members of the Malta Bankers' Association (MBA) and its Secretariat. The event was hosted by the CBM at its Laparelli Building. Goosse's presentation focussed on how the EPC is supporting payments harmonisation and innovation in Eu- rope in 2019 and beyond. He spoke amongst others on the "key tectonic forces driving change in the area of European payments" and referred to the "new paradox in payments where a more complex ecosystem is expected to produce simpler, faster and cheaper payments". While this takes place within the con- text of more players, a more fragment- ed value chain, increased use of tech- nology and more regulation, he said that today consumers' expectations are much higher, with more convenience, more security and flawless operations of institutions' existing legacy payment systems - even when payment service providers are moving to the new pay- ments landscape - constituting their main demands. Whilst thanking Goosse and the EPC for making this visit possible, the Secretary General of the MBA, Karol Gabarretta, augured that the MBA would be able to further liaise with the Council to explore avenues for fur- ther collaboration for the benefit of its members. The EPC is an international not-for- profit association formed of 75 mem- bers which are payment services pro- viders (mostly banks) or associations of such payment services providers. The EPC engages in constant dialogue with other stakeholders and regulators at European level and its role is to sup- port and promote the integration and development of European payments. The MBA is one of the members of the EPC. Payments harmonisation and innovation discussed during visit of European Payments Council Director General in Malta Etienne Goosse, Director General of the European Payments Council (EPC) Alan Curry (fourth from right) presenting the annual donation of €10,000 for the runnings costs of Traccia software programme to Professor Emanuel Farrugia