A midterm meeting of Indian Society for Organ Transplantation (ISOT) was held in Chennai from 16-18 March 2017. The theme of the meeting was 'Asian perspectives on organ donation & transplantation.' The best of Asian perspectives was shared by speakers from various countries - China, Iran, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and Australia. More than 200 doctors and transplant coordinators attended the meeting.

Day 1 had topics related to transplant coordination: Body donations – socio cultural perspectives from different countries; the science of counselling; role of social media; workshop on scientific writing; difficult donation case studies; transplant tourism; implementation of the new rules in India and the feasibility of an Asian Forum on Organ Donation.

Day 2 was devoted to topics from different Asian Countries and their experiences with organ donation. Models to promote organ donation from Iran, China, Nepal, India and Bangladesh were discussed. Use of Art to speak about organ donation; Ethical issues with directed donations; religious issues with deceased donations; capacity building of surgeons and coordinators in India, China and Iran; the latest developments in transplants such as robotic surgeries and Donation after Cardiac Death were also discussed.

In the evening there was a formal inauguration with the theme 'The Year that Was'. Various stakeholders spoke of their activities to promote organ donation. FORT Director Dr. Avnish Seth spoke of their More to Give campaign with NDTV and Mr. Badal Rag spoke of the Times of India Campaign, Mrs. Lalitha Raghuram elaborated on the efforts of MOHAN Foundation and Prof. Dr. Vimal Bhandari spoke on the plans of the national agency NOTTO. At the end Transplant Coordinators of MOHAN Foundation, Chennai displayed their dancing skills showcasing the folk dances of Tamil Nadu.

Day 3 began with roundtable discussions on some key medical and ethical concerns in transplants. There were six groups for doctors and two groups for transplant coordinators. Each group had a lead, who discussed the topic with his members and then finalised recommendations/guidelines.

Just before the start of the discussion, Tamil Nadu Government Principal Secretary, Dr. J. Radhakrishnan, IAS, Department of Health and Family Welfare attended the meeting and urged all stakeholders to work together to help organ failure patients. He said that the support of the government was critical to the success of the program.

After one hour of roundtable discussions, the lead speakers gave their recommendations. This was followed by a lunch symposium on De Novo use of OD Tacrolimus – Bangalore Experience. Uniform declaration of death and end of life care legislations and ethical dilemmas with case studies were discussed. The last session of the meeting was about living donations and how to protect the donors and detect discrepancies in the applications.

The 49th issue of the Indian Transplant Newsletter and 2016 consultative meeting proceedings were released and the Nafas Art festival of Iran was also inaugurated during the meeting.