A first of its kind, Continuing Medical Education (CME) on “Deceased Organ Donation” was conducted at the Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai on 20^th April 2017. The CME was organised by Madurai Medical College & Government Rajaji Hospital in association with MOHAN Foundation and supported by the SBI Foundation.

The CME was inaugurated by Dr. M. R. Vairamuthu Raju, Dean, Madurai Medical College and Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai. In his welcome address, he mentioned that the Government Rajaji Hospital has been licensed as a centre to perform organ transplants such as kidney, liver, heart, lung and pancreas transplantation. He stated that the main objective of the CME was to train and sensitize the various stakeholders of the hospital to start the deceased donor programme at Government Rajaji Hospital.

The programme had the following sessions

• Brain Stem Death - Identification & Certification by Dr. R. Raghavendran, Professor of Neurosurgery, Madras Medical College & Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Chennai
• Maintenance of a potential organ donor by Dr. Satish Logidasan, Sr. Assistant Professor, Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital, Chennai.
• Counselling the donor families and inter/intra-hospital coordination by Ms. Sujatha Suriyamoorthi, Manager – Information Systems, MOHAN Foundation, Chennai.

After the sessions, there was a discussion on the following and the queries raised by the participants were clarified by the speakers.

• Practical difficulties in certifying brain stem death
• Rules and guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu
• Frequent challenges encountered during maintaining deceased organ donors
• Role of police & forensic personnel
• Organ allocation policy of the state
• Duties and responsibilities of various stakeholders involved in the donation and transplantation programme
• Importance of having centre specific SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures)  

The CME was attended by around 55 doctors from various departments. The programme culminated with a valedictory function during which the speakers were felicitated by the Dean. Dr. Ganesh Prabhu, Director, Institute of Anesthesiology cum Nodal Officer, Deceased Donation Programme, Madurai Medical College and Government Rajaji Hospital proposed the vote of thanks.