Professional education of procurement transplant coordinators in Japan

Abstract

As only 81 brain dead (BD) organ donations had been performed in Japan for 13 years since 1997 because of very strict Organ Transplantation Act, the Act was revised on 17th July in 2010. By renewal of the Act, organs can be donated after BD with consent from their family, if he or she did not deny organ donation. By this renewal, there has been 4 or 5 fold increase in BD.

There are 88 procurement transplant coordinators (PTC) in Japan. 34 PTCs belong to Japan Organ Network (JOT) and others to each administrative division. JOT has made guideline manuals of standard roles and procedures of PTC during organ procurement in BD donors and donors after cardiac death.

In order to manage increased organ donations after the revision of the Act, we needed to modify the education systems. First, the guideline manuals of PTC were modified to correspond with the revised Transplant Act and guidelines made by the Government. Second, all PTC got together in the same meeting room to learn the new organ procurement system to deal with the revised Transplant Act and guidelines. Third, the special education programs for 2 months were provided for the 5 to 10 newcomers. Last, the practical training in each donor case by elder PTC was also done for newcomers.

Topics of the education program were as follows: the revised transplant Act and guidelines, family approach for organ donation, BD diagnosis, donor evaluation and management, organ procurement and preservation, allocation system, hospital development and family care

In the future, each PTC will be divided into special categories, such as the donor family PTC, the donor management PTC and the operation room PTC. Therefore, we need to make special education program for each category in the near future.