Transplant coordinator

Transplant coordinator is a healthcare professional – doctor, nurse, allied health science graduate, or a medical social worker – who coordinates activities related to organ donation and transplantation. Transplant coordinators can either be Donor Coordinators or Recipient Coordinators.

Deceased organ donation and transplantation involves close networking of medical, paramedical and non-medical personnel. Transplant coordinators are at the centre of this network.

The success of an organ donation and transplant program depends on good coordination and trained transplant coordinators are the key. Donor coordinators are capable of creating a positive environment for the families of brain dead patients. Their role in counseling the families for organ donation is instrumental in making the programme successful. They also help in building a healthy relationship with the medical, non-medical community and the deceased donors’ families. Recipient coordinators educate patients about how best to prepare for an organ transplant and how to take care of themselves after the transplant.

The Government of India passed the Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment) Act in 2011 which laid down a set of prerequisites for hospitals to get registered as transplant centres. Appointing a transplant coordinator is one of the prerequisites. The Act defines a “Transplant Coordinator” as a person appointed by the hospital for coordinating all matters relating to removal or transplantation of human organs or tissues or both and for assisting the authority for removal of human organs.

Providing appropriate educational programs for transplant coordinators is essential to help solve the problem of organ scarcity. It has been proven by the countries having successful deceased donation programmes that transplant coordinators can perform much better if they are professionally trained in the medical, legal, and ethical aspects of organ donation, counseling, networking, communication and coordination.

Structured training programmes for transplant coordinators are available only in a few countries like Spain and India.

Transplant Procurement Management (TPM) is an international educational programme in organ and transplant coordination that counts with the academic endorsement of the University of Barcelona. It promotes knowledge transfer and development of professional competences in organ donation as key factors to maximize donor potentiality and conversion rates.

Using the “Learning by doing” methodology, TPM offers a wide range of online, face-to-face and blended courses, providing one with the opportunity to learn how to identify a potential donor and how to manage all the donation and transplantation process following standards of high quality and ethics. TPM offers programmes of various durations.

The Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment) Act, 2011 has made Transplant Coordinator nomination mandatory before a hospital is registered as a transplant hospital. This means that there is a huge requirement for trained transplant coordinators in over 300 transplant hospitals in India.

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Wikipedia