Academics Update

NDTN Conducts Certificate Course on Transplant Co-ordinator

The National Deceased Donor Transplant Network (NDDTN) conducted a certificate course on transplant co-ordination in Mumbai. The five-day course was attended by more than 46 transplant co-coordinators / counselors associated with various Government and private hospitals from Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Aurangabad etc. The curriculum for the five-day certificate course was prepared by NDDTN. The course had 28 sessions on different aspects related to organ transplant and retrieval. Some of the topics for the course includes history of transplantation, THO Act 1994, brain death, counseling, organ retrieval packaging and preservation, internal hospital co-ordination, procedure of body donations, various types of organ donation, national transplant programme, social awareness methods, etc.

Said Dr Vatsala Trivedi, President, NDTN, "Over the years it has been observed that hospitals having transplant co-coordinators onboard helps to facilitate the deceased donor transplant procedure and those hospitals register maximum transplants. This course will help transplant co-coordinators to assist in the legal procedures for organ transplant/ retrieval and also assist them to counsel the donor families and inform respective doctors. We are also planning to conduct these certification courses and sessions in other locations like Chennai and Hyderabad in this year."

The sessions were addressed by eminent doctors, counselors working in the area of organ transplant like Dr Vatsala Trivedi, Dr Meena Kumar, Dr Harsh Jauhari, Dr Atul Adaniya, Dr Pravin Shingare, Dr Dilip Trivedi, Dr Viswanath Billa and Dr Abha Nagral. It is a well - known fact that India has the highest number of deaths from road accidents, however the organ donation rate is estimated to be only 0.01 per million. In India only around 1,400 have received cadaver organs in the last nine years. There is a critical shortage of available organs for transplant surgery.

EH News Bureau