Speaker Profile
Cherian Thomas Sajiv

Cherian Thomas Sajiv MBBS, MD, DM, DNB, MNAMS, FRACP

Nephrology
Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia

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Dr. Cherian Thomas Sajiv is a renal physician trained at the Christian Medical Colleges of Ludhiana and Vellore, India, and then subsequently obtained a Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of physicians in Australia. He has been engaged in Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders) Health for the last 2 decades based in the Northern Territory of Australia. He is currently serving as the Director of Renal Services based in Alice Springs in Central Australia. He and his team have engaged in several innovative ideas to streamline the delivery of renal services particularly to remote Indigenous Australians suffering from the tyranny of distance and dislocation from their home communities.
br/> This has included a major expansion of the Renal Services in the Northern Territory with the establishment of collaborative renal outreach services with primary health care to remote communities, provision of renal replacement therapy including dialysis / mobile dialysis in remote communities (often situated hundreds of kilometers away from tertiary centers) and renal transplantation to patients from remote communities. Along with his team, he has set up a collaborative Interventional Nephrology program for the endovascular management of dysfunctional vascular access in remote Central Australia at the Alice Springs Hospital- the only one of its kind, away from tertiary centers.
br/> Over the last several years there has been a substantial increase in the Northern Territory Nephrology workforce and he presently oversees a team of more than 15 renal physicians along with a fully accredited training program for Nephrology trainees. There has been a substantial improvement in the mortality rates and particularly in the Central Australian region the dialysis mortality is comparable or even better than the national average- a unique achievement akin to “Closing the Gap for Indigenous Australians on dialysis”.
br/> Along with his busy clinical commitments he has also established and maintained close links with Menzies Health and other organizations to focus on meaningful research in Indigenous Kidney Disease. He has several research areas of interest with publications. He continues to maintain an active academic/educational portfolio with the Flinders University in South Australia.
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