To boost organ donation, Govt lauches online registration

Delhi Government today launched an on-line registration system for voluntary organ donation in brain death cases.

Institute of Liver and Billiary Sciences has been given the responsibility of initiating and supervising the framework for Deceased Organ and Retrieval Organization (DOROSO).

To boost voluntary organ donation, this website -- www.dorso.org -- can now be accessed by Delhi registered hospitals encountering brain dead persons as a result of road traffic accidents.

"The fact that registered hospitals of Delhi will have a username and password to access this website will be helpful in facilitating organ retrievals in the event of brain death circumstances," Dr S K Sarin, Director ILBS, said.

He also said that ILBS has decided to target an estimated six-million internet users in Delhi and NCERT with the use of information and internet technology.

"The use of internet technology has great potential in reaching out to an educated audience and through them to many more. Organ donation should become a public movement in Delhi as it is for the benefit of our society. Government is only a facilitator and doctors can only offer their skills," he said.

DORSO is a non-government, not for profit organisation that has been approved by the Delhi State Deceased Organ and Retrieval Transplant Authority (DORTA) as implementers of the Delhi State Deceased Organ and Retrieval Program.

Sarin said, "Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit, was the first to pledge her organs at the inaugural function of the ILBS in 2009 under the aegis of DORSO. She is the brand ambassador of this programme."

Voluntary donors will be able to register their names on a website that can now be accessed by Delhi registered hospitals encountering brain dead persons as a result of road traffic accidents.

As per the government records, more than 10 lakh persons in India suffer from end-stage organ disease and need donated organs inorder to live and 250 people die each day for want of such organs.

The DORSO website will help cut the barriers commonly seen in a registration process by instantly providing donor cards following typing in details and allowing persons who have registered to update their details with provision of vital information such as the next of kin or signed witnesses.

Professor TK Chattopadhyay, head of Hepato Pancreato Biliary  Surgery and Liver Transplantation at ILBS said, "Difficulty in deceased donation is largely due to family refusals fuelled by myths. The DORSO website can answer this and more with a list of commonly asked questions."