Training to augment organ donation in India

The last three months have seen various positive developments in the field of organ donation in the country with both the centre as well as some state governments taking some initiatives to boost the organ donation scenario.

The Union Health Ministry has recently prepared guidelines for deceased organ donation in India. The draft guidelines propose a first-ever national registry of patients in the wait-list, and include a point system to prioritize organ supply. This will ensure a fair, transparent and equitable distribution of organs.

In another move, spelling relief for transplant recipients, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has reduced the rates of essential drugs given after a transplant. For a patient, finding a matching organ donor and undergoing a transplant is only half the battle won. Living with a foreign body is not only difficult but also expensive. Most recipients have to be on medication for a lifetime and the drugs don't come cheap.

Adding to the list of cities like Bangalore and Mumbai, the city of Ahmedabad has now made the option available of pledging to donate organs while applying for driver’s license. The need is for the Centre to adopt this so that many more people are the given the option to sign up.

The State of Kerala launched an air ambulance for promoting organ donation in Kerala. The memorandum of understanding for the air ambulance project was signed between the Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS) and the state-owned Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy where private and government hospitals would be linked to this programme and the aircraft would be used to transport organs from brain-dead patients from one city to the other within the state or from other states.

While the developments have been quite positive and encouraging India still has a long way to go. MOHAN Foundation, of course, continues to do all it can to contribute to creating a more enabling environment towards increasing donations in the country

Donor Action Program for ICU’s at BLK Super Specialty Hospital

Very often the medical personnel have little knowledge on identifying and maintaining a brain dead patient. They especially find it challenging to deal with the family, both to broach the subject of death and organ donation. O April 18, 2016, MOHAN Foundation was invited by BLK Super Specialty Hospital to conduct half day training on the same for ICU consultants, neuro-surgeons & physicians and nurses. The training workshop was done to give the needed push to the ongoing deceased organ donation program in the hospital.

MOHAN Foundation strongly believes that the medical fraternity bears a very big responsibility to make a program on organ donation a success in the hospital. The experience of the family, who has been approached for organ donation, both during the treatment and after the death is declared, makes a huge impact on their decision on donating organs. The need to continue supporting the family even if there is a refusal was stressed upon as that determines the perception of the family towards the hospital as well as how the message would be carried forward outside the hospital.

2nd Transplant Coordinators' Training Program conducted by NOTTO in partnership with MOHAN Foundation at NOTTO Office, New Delhi

NOTTO (National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organization) in partnership with MOHAN Foundation conducted the second Transplant Coordinators' Training Program from March 1-5, 2016 at NOTTO office, Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi. The first training was also conducted in partnership with the foundation last year in the month of July.

NOTTO, in partnership with MOHAN Foundation, is in the process of creating a national curriculum for the training of Transplant Coordinators.  Transplant Coordinators are an integral part of the success of organ donation and transplantation as it largely depends upon effective counseling and coordination by transplant coordinators.

35 participants of varied profiles like doctors, nurses, medical social workers, psychologists and quality managers from government hospitals of Delhi-NCR attended the training.

The training was held by the trainers of MOHAN Foundation along with the support of other faculty from Safdarjung and other government and private hospitals.

One Week Transplant Coordinators' Training Programme at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon

MOHAN Foundation in partnership with FORT (Fortis Organ Retrieval & Transplant) under the aegis of NOTTO (National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organization) successfully organized a training program for transplant coordinators from April 12-16, 2016 held at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon.

58 delegates of varied profiles – transplant coordinators, doctors, nurses, medical social workers, senior managers, medical superintendent and counselors from 11 states (Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh & Kerala) and 2 union territory (Delhi & Chandigarh) of India attended the training.

While the first training focused on government hospital transplant coordinators, this one attracted participants from private hospitals.

 4^th ELPAT Congress in Rome

Dr Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee of the Foundation was invited at the said conference to represent India and given the large experience of the Foundation with training transplant coordinators; he made a presentation on, ‘The role of transplant coordinators in public engagement’.

Training the police

As part of an ongoing training program, 97 Grade I police training cadets   under the Chennai wing of the Police Training College were given training on the “Role of Police in Organ Donation” on March 06, 2016 at the Police Training College. The main focus of the program is to clarify the role of investigation officer in deceased organ donation programme and to enable them to streamline processes.

MOHAN Foundation receives the Golden Mikes Awards for ''Best use of Radio

MOHAN Foundation won the Gold Trophy at the Golden Mikes Radio Advertising Awards for the "Best use of Radio" for its campaign titled "Dil Deke Dekho" with 91.1 Radio City. The campaign was run in Delhi-NCR from February 5, 2015 and leading up to February 14, 2015, it being the Valentine's Day. The campaign aimed to promote the cause of organ donation (more so heart donation) and to encourage listeners to pledge their organs on the Valentine's Day.

Golden Mikes celebrate the very best of radio advertising on stations across India and acknowledge the contribution of advertising agencies, media agencies, clients, radio stations, production houses and others to the growth of the medium in the country through these annual awards. This was the 6th edition of the Golden Mikes Awards.

The campaign itself won 3 awards namely:

Gold for "Best use of Radio"

Silver for "Best On Air promotion by a single radio station"

Silver for "Best Public Service Initiative by a radio station

The campaign attracted many celebrities to endorse organ donation. Honorable Health Minister, Shri J P Nadda also congratulated the efforts of the campaign. Many recipients and donor families shared their experiences on air and there were a large number of sign-ups as a result of the campaign.

The campaign highlights have been captured in this sound byte:

www.soundcloud.com/musicjockeyabhishek/best-use-of-radio-dil-deke-dekho