Digital registry on organ transplants to streamline donations on cards

livemint.com:

New Delhi: In an initiative aimed at regulating organ donation, the government is developing a digital registry on organ transplantation to smoothen the system and make it transparent. The Organ Donation Registry is being developed by the National Health Authority (NHA) and the union health ministry following consultation with the NITI Aayog for an overhaul of the National Organ Tissue Transplantation Organization (NOTTO), which manages and coordinates organ transplantation across the country. This will help eliminate the presence of touts and middlemen.

In the first phase, the registry is collecting pledges from people for their organ donation. One organ donor can save up to eight lives by donating the heart, two lungs, pancreas, two kidneys and intestine. “The ‘Organ Donation registry’ is a part of the overhaul of NOTTO which is ongoing under the National Organ Transplant Progamme (NOTP) 2.0.

There is a complete redesign of policies taking place on which even the prime minister and health minister have spoken a couple of times to sensitize people on organ donation and make the entire system transparent and smoothen it," said an official on the condition of anonymity. “Easing of organ transplant policies is being done by NOTTO and NITI Aayog. And the responsibility of shaping the policies into the digital format is being given to the National Health Authority.

For example, in the future all organ transplants should be fully digitized and transparent. If we have a list of recipients and donors, the organ should be allocated to that patient who is in need and can easily avail themselves as organs have a very small shelf-life," said an official aware of the matter. Currently, the entire organ transplantation process is