Dear members,
It is indeed an honour to step into the role of President of the International Living Donor Liver Transplantation Group (iLDLTG). As someone who has spent over three decades in the field, I feel deeply grateful for the trust the group has placed in me. This group has always been a home for collaboration, scientific honesty, and the shared belief that living donor liver transplantation can—and must—continue to evolve. To lead this organization for the next two years is both humbling and energizing.

I wish to acknowledge our founding fathers and past presidents who are great leaders in the leaders in the field of LDLT, along with the council members and committee chairs who have invested their time, vision, and passion into building this close-knit group, which has shown remarkable growth in the past few years. This year also marks the induction of a new council of office bearers from across the globe and reflect the group’s ethos of diversity, geographically, professionally, culturally, and philosophically. I am sure this council will present perspectives from every corner of the world and guide the group through a period of growth, innovation and responsibility.

As I begin my term, I want to lay out a set of goals for the next two years which have been shaped not just by my own experience, but by conversations with many of you.

1. Strengthening Global Collaboration: We all know that living donor liver transplant volume, outcomes, and practices vary widely across centers and regions. Some programs have decades of experience, while others are just beginning. One of my top priorities is to create smoother, more reliable channels for global data sharing—mechanisms that help centres learn from each other in real time. This includes expanding collaborations, multicentre registries, and encouraging transparency around outcomes and protocols.
2. Raising the Bar on Donor Safety: Living donor safety is the heart of our field. While our outcomes have improved dramatically in recent years, we must continue to focus on donor risk reduction: refining surgical technique, improving selection criteria, enhancing perioperative care, and providing long-term donor follow-up frameworks that are feasible across diverse health systems. Importantly, there is an unmet need to support teams dealing with a crisis such a serious donor morbidity. Given the presence of leading experts in the field within the group, the iLDLTG can play a crucial role in this regard.
3. Expanding Access to Care and Reducing Global Inequity: Access to transplantation is still profoundly uneven. Entire regions lack the resources, training, or infrastructure required to build sustainable living donor liver transplant programs. I aim to foster more training partnerships, centre-to-centre mentorship programs, visiting fellowships, and virtual learning platforms.
4. Supporting Young Surgeons and Early-Career Clinicians: Over my term, I hope to expand opportunities for young surgeons, hepatologists, anesthesiologists, nurses, coordinators, and researchers. This may include dedicated research grants, protected presentation time at our meetings, mentorship networks, and more options for young clinicians to take on leadership roles.
5. Embracing Innovation Responsibly: Technology is reshaping transplantation faster than ever before. AI in imaging and prediction models, advances in minimally invasive donor surgery, refinements in perfusion technology, and improvements in viral and oncologic therapies all have the potential to change how we practice. Part of our group’s role should be to create a bridge between innovation and clinical reality—to examine new ideas rigorously and help guide their responsible adoption.
6. Building a Truly Connected Community: I plan to focus on improving communication across all platforms: more regular updates, more opportunities for members to participate in discussions, and more ways for teams to share successes, challenges, and insights. Whether through webinars, case forums, newsletters, or collaborative workshops, I want every member to feel they are part of an active, supportive network.

As I look at the road ahead, I wish to lead with transparency, humility, and purpose. I am reminded of an African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”  Thank you for your trust. I look forward to working with all of you, learning from you, and shaping the future of our group together.

Prof. Mohamed Rela MS, FRCS, DSc

President, International Living Donor Liver Transplantation Group