National Marrow Donor Program Honors Houston’s Indian American Cancer Network (IACAN)
Suvasini Dorai, Blair Foy (Marketing Content Specialist – Marketing Partnerships, NMDP), Gaytri Kapoor (Donor Contact Representative, Marrow Donor Program, Gulf Coast Region), Kumari Susarla (President, IACAN), Dr. V.K. Dorai (past President, IACAN) and Dr. Jeffery Chell, M.D., (CEO of NMDP)
HOUSTON: The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)/Be The Match, which operates the Be The Match Registry, at the opening session of their 2016 Council Meeting on Friday, November 11, held at Hilton Minneapolis presented the Indian American Cancer Network (IACAN) the 2016 Leadership Award. The Council Meeting was attended by over 1,150 attendees, including nearly 200 attendees from 36 different countries.
On behalf of IACAN, Kumari Susarla, current President and Dr. V.K. Dorai, PhD, immediate past President received the award from Dr. Jeffery Chell, M.D., CEO of National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP)/Be The Match. IACAN was recognized for its exceptional success in promoting bone marrow donor registration and donations through educational outreach and bone marrow drives among the South Asian community in the Greater Houston area.
In 1996 before the conception of IACAN, P. G. Parameswaran, MD, a now former board member and joint secretary of IACAN, began hosting bone marrow donor drives for Houston’s South Asian community. IACAN is now responsible for organizing and sponsoring over 100 bone marrow donor registration drives. In addition, the organization has registered over 4,000 new registrants, thus substantially increasing the number of South Asian bone marrow donor registrants in the national registry.
IACAN has increased the national registry’s Houston area South Asian donations by 275 percent. Before IACAN began its work in 2009, the national registry accounted for 12 donations by South Asians, but since IACAN’s involvement the number of donations has grown to 45 in the Houston area, as of June 2016.