GENESIS
The Genesis of Bangkok Biomaterial Center’s homepage goes back to the period 1988 - 89, when the Center along with active coordination from the International Atomic Energy Agency was organizing the 3rd International symposium on locomotor tissue banks and the 1st Annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Association of Surgical Tissue Banks. During this time it was felt that there was a desperate need of an electronic media through which communication between different tissue banks could be established at high speed, high quality and low cost. A first step towards releasing this objective was attempted by the Center by distributing to the participating delegates with a copy of tissue bank data, forms and protocols in floppy diskettes. By this way the immediate need was fulfilled but long term stability was not accomplished. The Center’s need for frequent communication with other tissue banks in order to exchange ideas, research studies, clinical data, scientific information etc was increasing day by day and in the absence of a stable electronic media. The Center seeked permission from the University for the allotment of a direct facsimile and the University was kind enough to grant permission, which was a temporary limited relief for the Center.
It was during the 1992-93 period that while undergoing a National Defense College Fellowship Course, Prof. Yongyudh Vajaradul took the course along with Gen. Preecha Rojanasen - Deputy Supreme Commander, Thailand.
Lately during 1995 –1996, thanks to Mr. Bill Gates for the wonderful Windows 95, that distant communication seemed very near and with a high quality at an affordable cost. The advent of the windows operating system had flushed open the gates of possibles for low-end consumers and small to medium level organizations. The world of communication was changing. The Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, started with the Siriraj Computer Center, which commenced the Email facility for medical professionals of the hospital. The Mahidol University launched its website providing only with general information and was not dedicated to department and sub-department level. Thus provided the need, idea and background for the starting of an independent official website of the Center.
It was during 1996-1997 that Prof. Yongyudh happened to once again meet his Defense College days friend General Preecha and during the friendly discussions, it surfaced that the Supreme Command was having its own website indigenously designed by a Thai Army Officer named Col. Kasim. Sittichoke Muktier. Gen. Preecha was kind enough to offer his help through Col. Sittichoke in developing the official homepage of the Center. Thus the foundation was laid and a new chapter opened.
The work on development of Center’s homepage commenced in mid 1997 and carried on till mid 1998, when the first design was approved and sufficient details were gathered to be placed on the website. This homepage was on the geocities website and the address of this venture was http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7798/
In Nov 1998, the Center’s staff was added by the inclusion of Mr. Reyaz Alam Qayami and in January 1999, work was commenced on updating and modification of the Center’s website. In addition to this the technology, design was also changed and the web server was switched to Tripod. A complete set of new state of art IT-wares were purchased which included 2 PCs running on Pentium III-800 and Pentium II-233, Umax Powerlook II Scanner, Sanyo Digital Camera, HP Lazer Printer, CD-ROM, CD-Writer along with a host of softwares. The Center’s IT capabilities became a mini IT studio capable of handling the latest in the market. The whole process took around 2 months and in March 1999, the Center’s website was complete, got a facelift with a new look and a new address. Since then the homepage is web-mastered by Mr. R. A. Qayami and the address is the same and it can be reached at by the following links:
 |
www.come.to/biothai |
|
www.fly.to/biothai |
|
www.members.tripod.com/biothai |
During its present 22 months of existence, the Center’s homepage had 960 visitors. The existing website provides with a huge wealth of information both general and scientific and presently there are a total of 200 pages of text and 150 photographs. At this juncture we will take a brief tour into the different links of the Center’s homepage.
CORPORATE PROFILE: This link will take the visitor for a text ride into the Genesis of Tissue Banking in Thailand and the circumstances leading to the birth of the Bangkok Biomaterial Center. Slowly this section traces the long journey covered by the Center in the span of 15 years and in the end there is a small tribute to the man behind the whole foundation i.e the Founder Chairman & Director, Prof. Dr. med. YONGYUDH VAJARADUL.
OBJECTIVES: This link will show you the major objectives of the Center.
ORGANIZATION: This segment shows the various committees and Boards which govern the Center’s activities both in action and in principles. Then it shows the existing personnel designation and the flow of control. After it describes about the Job profile of each staff member of the Center.
VIRTUAL TOUR: By clicking on this link the visitor will be taken for a tour of the Building, Setup, laboratories and other areas of the Bangkok Biomaterial Center. There are vivid photographs giving you ample opportunity to experience the working of tissue bank in a synopsis.
CLINICAL DATA: This link will take you to the statistical clinical data of Allograft application and tissue donation. The tables representing the data are very exhaustive and cover every different diagnosis recorded.
RESEARCHES: This link takes you to the Researches being conducted at the Center in the last 20 years. Work is still undergoing to provide the visitors with complete details of each and every research done and also undergoing.
CURRENT PROGRAMS: This link talks about the programs and projects currently being undertaken and conducted at the Center. This includes exhaustive details on the Advance Training Course cum Master Degree Program – MSc in Bone and Tissue Banking.
FUTURE PROGRAMS: This link as the name signifies indicates about the would be projects or programs to be undertaken in the coming days, weeks, months and years.
LINKS: This link will take you to other tissue banking and related websites.
TELECONFERENCE & LIVE DISCUSSIONS: This is the link specially being developed to give a thrust to distant learning for the Advance Training Course. The page is still under construction and is expected to be completed by end of February 2001. This page is planned to have one-to-one online Web-conference between Bangkok Biomaterial Center and other tissue banks in the world. It is intended that Tissue Bank Operators and staffs will benefit by live lectures given by experts of the Advance Training Course being conducted at the Center. We look forward that starting of this page will be the beginning of a new era in the global tissue Banking research & development and scientific exchange among tissue banks all over the globe.
BECOME A TISSUE DONOR: If you wish to register as a volunteer tissue donor, then this is the link for you. This link provides exhaustive details about how to become a tissue donor along with application forms. You can see the opinions and messages from some of our Volunteer Tissue Donors as well as Allograft recipient patients.
PLACE YOUR ALLOGRAFT REQUEST: This link is for clinicians especially but common man can also avail benefit of it. The Center can be reached through this link to provide services of bone and tissue allografts. Details about the requirements and application forms are available on this page.
INTERNET TEAM: This link describes about the Iteam of Bangkok Biomaterial Center, which has been formed recently comprising of the existing staffs from the Center’s three departments. The contribution of each staff along with their future assignments with reference to the updating of the Center’s homepage is listed.
APPLICATION OF BONE & TISSUE ALLOGRAFTS IN ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY: This link is what an inquisitive visitor either a clinical user or a non-medical professional is eagerly looking for. This section talks about the clinical application of Allografts in Orthopaedic surgery. All the details provided are from the experiences of the Center with respect to clinical applications of Bone and Soft tissue allografts. An attempt has been made to present as much as possible information for the benefit of the visitor.
APPLICATION OF ALLOGRAFT IN OTHER SURGERIES: Here we talk about the other disciplines of medicine other than Orthopaedic, where allografts from the Center have been applied.
CURRENT STOCK OF ALLOGRAFTS AND FOLLOW-UP OF PATIENTS: This link provides a weekly report on the stock statement of bone and soft tissue allografts at the Center. At the same time it also provides a summary of the clinical applications and tissue donations along with the details of weekly allograft surgery follow-up.
JOURNAL OF CELL AND TISSUE BANKING: This link will take you to the International Journal of Cell and Tissue Banking editors Rudiger von Versen and being published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands. This is the first and only journal in the world of its kind and provides on-hand information about the latest going on in the world of tissue banking.
SURGICAL TECHNIQUES USING BONE AND TISSUE ALLOGRAFTS: This link provides surgical details about clinical applications of allografts in various surgeries. Presently only photos are present to describe the techniques but work is under progress to provide full-length video features.
BANGKOK BIOMATERIAL CENTER and the NATIONAL SCOUT ORGANIZATION OF THAILAND: This link will take the visitor to the homepage of the NSOT where there is description in details about the association of the organizations.
BANGKOK BIOMATERIAL CENTER and the ROTARY CLUB BANGKOK-BANGLAMPHOO: This link will take you to the homepage of the Rotary Club Bangkok Banglamphoo and give you details about the association of the two organizations.
BANGKOK BIOMATERIAL CENTER and ASIA PACIFIC ASSOCIATION OF SURGICAL TISSUE BANKS (APASTB): This link takes you to the un-official homepage of APASTB being developed by the Center. Since Prof. Dr. med. YONGYUDH VAJARADUL –Chairman of the Center was the founder of the APASTB, we have developed this website to provide our valuable visitors about some details of the APASTB.
THAI ASSOCIATION OF TISSUE BANKS (TATB): This link will take you to the Homepage of TATB, which was founded in 2001 by Prof. Dr. med. YONGYUDH VAJARADUL. A glimpse into the homepage which has been developed by the Center is provided for our curious visitors.
PUBLIC RELATION ACTIVITIES: This link provides details about all the public relation activities conducted at and by the Center in the last 20 years.
INTERNATIONAL REFERENCES: This link consists of international references of allograft.
NEWS: This is the place, which will tell you about the latest event happened at the Center. It is also attempted that this section provides you with a complete report of the event with photographs and videos. The section is the electronic news desk of the Center.