Chennai hosted the 26th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation (ISOT) from 1st – 4th October 2015 at The Leela Palace under the leadership of Prof. Georgi Abraham (Organising Chairman) and Prof. Sunil Shroff (Organising Secretary). ISOT 2015 will go down as perhaps the most successful transplant conference in India for both attendance and content. For the first time the conference brought together all the diverse transplant related sub-specialities including many newer branches of organ transplantation like transplant pathology and immunology, infectious diseases, and composite tissue transplants besides heart, lung, kidney and liver transplants, and transplant coordination.

In addition, there was also a pre-conference tutorial programme on organ retrieval run by a special team invited from Oxford University, UK on 30th September and 1st October in Bengaluru under the banner of ISOT 2015, and a pre-conference session on 1st October 2015 plus early morning workshop sessions. A record 1200 delegates and faculty attended the conference. ISOT 2015 saw more than 35 international faculty members add to the scientific content of the conference.

Dr.  C.  Vijaya  Baskar,  Hon’ble  Minister  for  Health  and   Dr. J. Radhakrishnan, IAS, Secretary to Government, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu graced the conference for the inauguration. Dr. Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, was the chief guest for a special public function. Eminent personalities and organisations that made an invaluable contribution to the organ donation and transplantation programme in Tamil Nadu were felicitated including Dr. J. Radhakrishnan, IAS, Mr. P. W. C. Davidar, IAS, Dr. J. Amalorpavanathan, Member Secretary, Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu, Dr. Prathap C. Reddy, Founder Chairman, Apollo Hospitals, Dr. K. M. Cherian, Chairman & CEO, Frontier Lifeline Hospital, Dr. R. P. Shanmugam who performed the first liver transplantation in Govt. Stanley Hospital in 1996 and is now a liver transplant recipient himself, NGOs MOHAN Foundation and NNOS Foundation. A film “Tamil Nadu – Leading the way” was also screened on the occasion.