On 30^th January 2015 senior transplant coordinators met in Chennai for a consultative meeting.  Of the  47 participants, 26 were transplant coordinators with experiences ranging from 3 years to 15 years. This is the second such national meeting that has been held to address the learning needs and challenges faced by senior transplant coordinators in the country.

The points of discussion were: 

1. Problems in Deceased organ donation and how to improve the donation rate – moderated by Dr. Sonal Asthana, Liver Transplant Surgeon, BGS Global Hospitals, Bengaluru.
2. Importance of post-mortem moderated by Mr Ramesh Sharma, IPS Director General of Police (Retd).
3. Fallacies in declaring brain death, Apnea test and ancillary tests - talk by Dr. Vijayanand Palaniswamy, Adult and Pediatric Intensivist, GKNM Hospital, Coimbatore.  
4. How to optimise a donor – talk by Dr. N. Sridhar, Senior ICU Consultant, Kauvery Hospital, Chennai.
5. Peripheral blood stem cell donation – talk by Mr. Raghu Rajagopal, CEO, DATRI.

The transplant coordinators gave their views and there was a lively discussion. There was valuable information sharing by the senior coordinators and doctors. Some suggestions that came up  - Police NOC is really not needed;  the transplant coordinators should be aware  of other laws specially in case of a brain dead women – within 7 years of her marriage;   time of  retrieval surgery -  if done afternoon – then body can be given to the relatives  the next morning;  how a CT contrast – an ancillary test assists in getting the family to understand brain death clearly;  need to engage frontline  emergency and critical care doctors  for organ donation; incentives for counsellors and donor families – some examples were discussed.  

The coordinators were given an opportunity to understand the need of deceased organ donation among the Asian communities in UK. Dr. Satya Vrat Sharma, MBE, Chair, Promoting Organ Donation, UK explained the steps taken by him and his team to garner support for organ donation from minority ethnic communities.

Prof. James Neuberger, Associate Medical Director of NHS Blood and Transplant, UK, spoke on the  status of organ donation in UK and how organisation structures, small  changes in protocols and  specific training on organ donation has  led to significant increase in consents from the families.