Organ donation after brain death in India: A trained intensivist is the key to success

Abstract

Organ donation after brain death in India is gaining momentum but only in a few states. Tamil Nadu is leading in the country in this regard. Certain cities have performed well compared to Chennai's results. A single tertiary hospital performed 28 donations in a 17 months period with a team of an intensivist and a transplant coordinator. An intensivist needs training and interest in this noble cause. There is no formal training program in this noble cause for doctors in India. A structured formal training needs to be introduced and made mandatory for the doctors in intensive care to make this donation process a successful program.

Application of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain in healthcare management - donor organ transplant system

“…Spain leads the world in deceased donor donation programs with the highest national average of the population, and their success can be attributed to trained intensivists. While in the Indian context, hardly any formalized training exists for intensive care doctors or nurses (Palaniswamy et al, 2016).…”

Assessing comfort level of organ donation competencies among pediatric intensivists in Saudi Arabia: a national survey

“…Brain death disclosure and DBD discussions occur mostly in the intensive care unit (ICU), rendering intensivists major stakeholders in this process [11]. Intensivists need to acquire essential competencies to achieve successful donations-such as identifying potential donors, guiding families through the process of brain death, and facilitating donor management [12,13]. A lack of these competencies leads to missed donations.…”

“…Intensivists both lead and identify the disclosure process. All health professionals in Spain are trained in deceased organ donation [12,16].…”

Organ Donation Rate in Brain-Dead Patients in a Tertiary Referral Center

“…Intensivists play a major role in counseling the family members and implementing standardized protocols in the care of BSD patients. [ 11 ] In the latter years, the appointment of transplant coordinators, to liaise and build rapport with the families of the BSD patients, and the presence of an in-house transplantation team including liver and kidney transplant surgeons have contributed to the improvement in organ donation rates.…”