Uttar Pradesh has begun building its first pool of formally certified transplant coordinators, with more than 100 coordinators from across the state starting a five-day organ donation training programme at Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow.
The programme, called Life Connect TransCo-ord, was launched by the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation, Uttar Pradesh (SOTTO-UP), under the aegis of the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO). It is intended to improve the identification of deceased organ donors and strengthen coordination between intensive care units, donor families and transplant centres.
The training includes more than 45 sessions on brain stem death certification, donor management, organ allocation, transplant coordination and communication with donor families. Participants who complete the course will receive a NOTTO certificate carrying a registration number. SOTTO-UP said this would create Uttar Pradesh’s first pool of formally certified transplant coordinators.
The programme addresses a key operational requirement in deceased-donor transplantation: identifying potential donors in hospitals and coordinating the process quickly enough for organs to be retrieved and allocated. Prof Narayan Prasad, head of nephrology at SGPGIMS, said timely identification of potential donors in intensive care units was essential to increasing organ donation.
The launch comes as SGPGIMS expands its transplant activity. According to SOTTO-UP, the institute performed its first cadaveric multi-organ transplant in February 2026, followed by the state’s first heart transplant in April and its first deceased-donor cornea retrieval in May.
SOTTO-UP also said Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of online organ donation pledges in the country on Indian Organ Donation Day in 2024. The organisation said a renal transplant centre was being established at GSVM Medical College in Kanpur with government support of Rs 1.5 crore. Coordinator teams from Kanpur and Agra have already been trained for kidney transplant programmes.
The programme is also linked to a wider institutional question: whether transplant coordination can become a sustained function within the state’s public health system rather than remain dependent on individual hospitals or ad hoc teams. SOTTO-UP said a proposal to create a separate cadre of transplant coordinators is under consideration by the Uttar Pradesh government.
The five-day course will conclude with certification for participants who complete the programme. The proposed separate cadre and the expansion of transplant services at Kanpur and other centres remain subject to further government decisions.
