DR. KARINA MOEGNI, SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL OF JAKARTA MEMBER: MAKING A DIFFERENCE TO HER PATIENTS

Among the many talented Soroptimist International Indonesia’s clubs’ members, one name stands out – Dr. Karina Moegni, a medical surgeon who has made it her life’s work to not only help her patients, but also those less fortunate for whom high-quality medical treatment is not easily accessible.

Karina graduated as a plastic surgeon in 2007 and received her doctoral degree in Biomedical Science in 2019, both from the University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia, with a dissertation on angiogenesis function of stem cells from diabetic patients. Becoming a plastic surgeon for Karina meant having the chance to do research to find better and more affordable, yet safe treatments and therapies, including various techniques involving cell therapy.

To realise her dream of assisting the less fortunate who need costly medical treatments, Karina started a charity/foundation for children with cleft lip and palate conditions from underprivileged families all over Indonesia. A member of Soroptimist International of Jakarta since 2010, Karina was part of a sponsored project to perform surgery on three local children with cleft palate/lip issues.

Karina is now attempting to finish a series of clinical trials in using cell therapy for mild to critically ill COVID-19 patients. Karina’s efforts to introduce a safe, efficient and affordable therapy for people throughout Indonesia are close to becoming reality, as this therapy has now received recognition from other countries in the first trials and publications of the use of cell therapy as adjunctive therapy for COVID-19 patients.

What was once a treatment used in beauty care that used small amounts of her patients’ own blood to produce a concentrate filled with bioactive molecules, growth factors, and anti-microbes (referred to as “aaPRP”), has become an effective treatment to reduce the effect of the so-called “cytokine storm” in many Covid-19 patients.