Worldwide, India stands at 3rd position in absolute transplant numbers only behind USA and China. The number of total organ transplants in the country has substantially increased from 4990 in the year 2013 to 16041 in the year 2022.

Shri Sourav Ganguly (Former President BCCI), Dr. Atul Goel (Director DGHS) and Dr. Georgi Abraham (President ISOT) felicitating Dr. Arpita Roy Chowdhury (IPGME&R, Kolkata)

The Indian Society of Organ Transplantation (ISOT) was founded at Ahmedabad by the joint efforts of few senior nephrologists including Late Dr HL Trivedi, Late Dr Vidya N Acharya, Late Dr JCM Sashtry, Dr S Sunder, Dr CM Thiagarajan, Dr Meshak Kirubakaran and Dr A Gopal Kishan. The Society was registered in Ahmedabad under the Societies' Act of 1860 on 24th April 1990. Since its inception, ISOT is working towards development and exchange of scientific knowledge and promotion of technical cooperation between clinicians, scientists and others involved in the field of transplantation.

The 33rd annual conference of the ISOT was held in Kolkata from 5 to 8 October 2023 at Hotel ITC Royal Bengal and ITC Sonar. Honorable Shri. Dr. Atul Goel, Director General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India was the Chief Guest and Shri. Sourav Ganguly, former Captain of the Indian national cricket team and the 35th President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was the guest of honor.

Dr. Anil Kumar, Director, National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) was the special guest for the meeting. The congress was attended by around 500 faculty including 40 international faculty. A total of 1700 delegates attended the conference over 5 days. 320 transplant professionals submitted abstracts and presented their transplant work in oral, mini-oral and poster format.

Women in transplant in India at the ISOT 2023

There were sessions on transplant immunology, transplant surgery, transplant pathology, transplant infectious diseases, ABOincompatible transplant, swap transplantation, scientific writing and transplant coordination. The joint session by NOTTO discussed the recent reforms, unique difficulties and the challenges faced in North East India. Social media coverage was done mainly by live-tweeting, faculty interviews, and sharing the glimpses of presentations. There were 2.485 million impressions with 1253 conference tweets with #ISOT2023 by around 190 participants.

The ISOT 2023 was a unique platform that discussed the major issue of improving access to organ transplantation, increasing deceased organ donations, and collaborating with national and international societies and regulatory authorities.