MOHAN Foundation participated in the Conference of Renal healthcare Professionals (COREP) – a regional conference of the International Federation of Kidney Foundation (IFKF) in June 2012. In this meeting, for the first time, three groups of Renal Professionals including nutritionists, dialysis technicians and nurses, social workers and transplant coordinators came together. The meeting was held on 8^th, 9^th & 10th June, 2012 at the YB Chavan Auditorium, Mumbai.

 

A number of distinguished national and international faculty participated in the conference. MOHAN Foundation faculty was invited to give presentations on a variety of topics. In addition to common sessions for all the groups of renal professionals, parallel sessions were also held for the three target groups. These sessions addressed issues specific to these groups and this was an extremely productive exercise.

 

On 9^th June 2012, Dr. Navin Jayakumar, Neuro-ophthalmologist and faculty of MOHAN Foundation’s Transplant Coordinators’ training courses, opened the common program session with a talk on ‘Understanding brain death.’ This was followed by a presentation by Dr. Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee, MOHAN Foundation, on ‘Organs and tissues that can be transplanted and its status in India.’ He was also part of a panel discussion on ‘How to improve organ transplantation in India.’ Dr. Sujata Patwardhan, Secretary, Zonal Transplant Co-ordination Centre, Mumbai spoke about the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 and the recent amendments. The common session concluded with a Keynote address by Dr. Vidya N. Acharya  - ‘Overview of Renal Healthcare in Asia – current status, pitfalls, promises and their relevance to healthcare professionals.’ Dr. Acharya is a pioneer of nephrology in India and it was because of her efforts as Indian representative of IFKF that this regional conference was held.

 

The audience of close to 300 people then split into different groups for the special sessions. The programme for the social workers and transplant coordinators focused on various issues – the psychosocial issues in patients with end-stage renal disease, coping with dialysis, social worker’s role in preparing a patient for transplant, communication skills and techniques of counseling, grief counselling etc. The MOHAN Foundation team spoke on the following topics on 9^th and 10^th June 2012 –

 

Promoting the Deceased Donation and Transplantation programme in India – Ms. Lalitha Raghuram, Country Director

 

Training Transplant Coordinators - our experience in living and deceased organ donation and transplantation – Dr. Sumana Navin, Course Director

 

Public education initiatives for promoting organ donation & transplantation – Ms. Pallavi Kumar, Executive Director

 

Deceased Donation and Transplantation programme in Chennai – Ms. Veena Raju, Transplant Coordinator

 

The sessions were well received by the 60 social workers, transplant coordinators and nursing students who participated.