Network and Alliance of Transplant Coordinators (NATCO), in association with MOHAN Foundation held its 11th Annual Transplant Coordinators’ Conference at St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru on 3rd and 4th December, 2018. This year’s event also saw NATCO and MOHAN Foundation partnering with the International Association of Bioethics to conduct a conference on the theme of ‘Emerging Ethical Dilemmas in Organ Donation and Transplantation.’ Furthermore, a symposium on ‘Organ Donation and Transplantation in a World of Inequality’ was organised by the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group (DICG) and the Foundation. Both these events were part of the pre-congress sessions that preceded the 14th World Congress of Bioethics.

More than 200 national and international participants including transplant coordinators, hospital administrators and individuals working towards promoting the cause were present. Speakers, chairpersons and panel members were eminent professionals from the fields of medicine, bioethics, law, media and academia from all over the world. A wide range of topics relating to ethics in transplantation, equity in organ allocation, role of social media, judgments and government orders, organ trafficking, policy making were discussed.

Dr. Elmi Muller - Co-Chair, DICG; Councilor, The Transplantation Society; Past President, South African Society of Transplantation; Professor of Surgery, University of Cape Town, South Africa delivered the Swamy Narayan memorial lecture. Lt. Col. Sandhya Nair, from the Army R&R Hospital, New Delhi and Dr. Bhanu Prakash of MOHAN Foundation received the Swamy Narayan Best Transplant Co- ordinator award. Ms. Anindita Sabath from MOHAN Foundation received the Dr. J Amalorpavanathan Best Scientific Paper Award for her presentation on ‘Perception and attitude towards organ donation among people of Odisha.’

The conference was supported by Jeevasarthakathe – Transplant Authority of Karnataka, SBI Foundation, SBI DHFI Ltd., Tata Trusts, Amar Gandhi Foundation, Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC) Pune, Narmada Kidney Foundation, The Transplantation Society and International Society of Nephrology.