Ananthanayagi AP Purushothaman, United Arab Emirates has been granted the ISODP Congress Scientific Award
Worked in some of the leading academic centers in the world as a front-line nurse, manger, educator, and as a coordinator in a variety of critical care specialties and field of organ donation and transplantation for past 20 years. Strong experience and expertise in state –of-the art patient care and research. I am able to develop strategies to build programs from scratch or enhance established programs, and establish new opportunities. Experience in engaging and managing multicultural staff, engaging competing centers and supporting organizations.
Patient care is at the center of my work and have developed teams, empowered colleagues and established best practices to help develop and execute multiple successful programs including organ donation, living related kidney transplant & international paired kidney donation in the UAE Healthcare. Possess the clinical, administrative, academic and people skills and have been able to translate the cultural values of academic centers of west to this ecosystem and have been to create and establish multiple successful programs in UAE Healthcare.
Impact of implementation standard donor management protocol on the organ donation and procurement in a large tertiary care hospital in United Arab Emirates: Lessons learnt
Ananthanayagi Purushothaman1, Masood Ur Dr Rahman1, Maris Dr Dubniks1, Julieta Dr Hidalgo1.
1Critical Care Department, Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City, ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates
Introduction: Organ transplantation from deceased brain dead donor (DBD) legalized in the UAE since 2016. However, medical care for potential DBD varies among hospitals and even among physicians at same institution. At Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC), we formulated a standardized donor management protocol according to latest international guidelines with a view increase our organ donation rates.
Objectives:Study the outcomes of implementation of a standard of a DBD donor management program at a tertiary care centre in UAE.
Methods: A multi-pronged action plan implemented across the hospital to improve awareness about DBD, addressed knowledge gap among the multidisciplinary team and updating about the latest management guidelines for DBD and specialized training to approach families.
Donor management protocol devised and implemented by SSMC organ donation committee. A comprehensive educational program implemented to raise awareness and improve knowledge about DBD and diagnosis plus management for brain death donor. In addition, sessions were held to drain critical care unit staff on approaching families of potential DBD. In addition, sessions on diagnosis of brain death and organ donation was mandated for all new staff at SSMC as part of hospital orientation to raise awareness of the role and importance of organ donation.
Once brain death confirmed, a standardized donor management care bundle was initiated early to ensure high quality organs for transplantation. In addition, the be set up organ donation referral pathways and development of donor management protocols in our electronic medical record, streamlining process and practices
Results: SSMC organ donation program has been able to screen 49 patients and achieve 11 successful organ donations in 2022 alone. This has saved around 48 lives between UAE and Saudi Arabia, which was 90% rise compared to the preceding year. We were also the first centre in UAE to safely and successfully retrieve organs from a COVID positive brain death donor due to an established organ donation governance structure.
Conclusion: Deceased donation is time critical process, which requires development of robust clinical governance pathways to help promote and establish an Organ Donation Program. Implementation of standardized DBD management protocol has resulted in improved organ support and less donor and organ loss and increased number of organs transplanted. Establishment of commonly agreed pathways and protocols has helped to establish SSMC as the leading DBD program in the UAE.
