The inauguration of the Annual Transplant Coordinators’ Workshop was held on Friday 20th August 2010 at Care Hospitals, Hyderabad. This national workshop was organized by MOHAN Foundation with the support of the Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust.
The inauguration function began with Mrs. Lalitha Raghuram, Country Director, MOHAN Foundation, welcoming the dignitaries to the dais. Sri. J. Satyanarayana, IAS, Special Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Government of Andhra Pradesh was the Chief Guest. Dr. B. Somaraju, Chairman, Care Foundation was the Special Guest and Dr. Krishnamraju, Managing Director, Care Hospitals, was the Guest of Honour.
Dr. Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee, MOHAN Foundation, in his welcome address said that Transplant coordinators’ can make a crucial difference to the deceased organ donation programme. MOHAN Foundation is offering the country’s first structured training programme for Transplant coordinators. The course is highly subsidised as it is supported by the Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust. He said that the current organ donation rate in India is only 0.08 per million population while even in countries like Greece and Turkey it is 3-4 per million population. There are about 1,40,000 road traffic accidents annually in India of which 67% result in brain death. Even if 5-10% of this is converted to organ donation, innumerable patients with organ failure can be helped. He also spoke about NATCO (National Transplant Coordinators’ Organisation) which was launched at the ISOT Conference in Hyderabad in 2003. He said that it was time to restart this initiative since Transplant Coordinators require a platform to voice their concerns and network.
Dr. C.Krishnamraju, Chairman Care Foundation who was the Guest of Honour, released the 29th issue of the Indian Transplant Newsletter. In his address he said that Care Hospitals had been associated with MOHAN Foundation for the past eight years and they were happy to provide a venue for the Annual Transplant Coordinators’ Workshop. He also said that they had an active renal transplant programme and that their Kidney Care Project was started with the blessings of the former president of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam. Through this project they help patients financially with transplant surgery costs and immunosuppressants. He added that in an effort to popularize the deceased organ donation programme they are trying to involve eminent people like Dr. Kalam and others to become Ambassadors of Life.
Dr. B Somaraju, Chairman Care Hospitals who was the Special Guest, released the “Workshop manual. Addressing the gathering, he said that it was difficult to predict the future of medicine but he was going to go ahead anyway and say that specialities were going to be redefined especially with regard to transplants. So Transplant coordinators were going to have a lot of work. He added that in addition to hard skills, soft skills were very important for the job.
Sri. J. Satyanarayana, IAS, Chief Guest, presented the Convocation Certificates to the second batch of Transplant Coordinators who underwent the one-month training programme in Chennai in June 2010. In his address he spoke about the new Andhra Pradesh Government Order, “Jeevandaan”, which was aimed at streamlining the deceased organ donation in the state. He said that networking of transplant centres and non-transplant organ retrieval centres was necessary along with the support of NGOs and transplant coordinators since organ donation and retrieval is a highly orchestrated process. He also said that it was necessary to mount large media campaigns to increase acceptability and public awareness.
In her Vote of Thanks, Dr. Sumana Navin, Course Director, thanked all the distinguished guests and faculty for their participation. She extended her thanks to the delegates for their overwhelming response and mentioned that registrations had to be refused as there was no room left! She thanked all the supporters and sponsors for helping MOHAN Foundation organise the Annual Transplant Coordinators’ Workshop – Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust, CARE Foundation, Shantha Biotechnics, Bharat Biotech, NATCO Pharma, Apollo Hospitals, Global Hospitals, Kamineni Hospitals, Star Hospitals and Medindia Pvt. Ltd.
Free Paper Session at the Annual Transplant Coordinators Workshop
Panel Discussion at the Annual Transplant Coordinators Workshop
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