The Donation & Transplantation Institute (DTI) is a non-profit organization committed to improving society’s quality of life through the donation and transplantation of organs, tissues, and cells. DTI brings together international experts in the field to advise and support the implementation of donation and transplantation projects, and it creates a wide-reaching research network.
DTI advises and supports international public and private entities working within healthcare systems to design, develop, and strengthen networks, programs, services, and/or research projects in the field of organ, tissue, and cell donation and transplantation, with the goal of improving citizens’ quality of life.
TTS 2024 Congress
The TTS Congress 2024 (30th International Congress of The Transplantation Society) is a key global event in the field of organ donation and transplantation, held from September 22 to 25, 2024, at the Istanbul Congress Center, Turkey. It was organized by The Transplantation Society (TTS), an international organization with over 6,500 members in more than 105 countries, and brought together professionals from around the world to share scientific, clinical, and ethical advances in the field of transplantation.
DTI is an internationally recognized organization, and it had a prominent presence at the TTS Congress 2024, where its president, Dr. Martí Manyalich, along with a team of experts, participated in key discussions and workshops focused on advancing practices in Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD). They conducted various presentations and workshops, and DTI showcased its innovative work at a booth during the congress. Attendees had the opportunity to interact with an NRP simulation, which allowed them to experience firsthand the critical aspects of DCD procedures. Additionally, participants were invited to try a Virtual Reality (VR) experience, providing an immersive perspective on the donation process, further highlighting DTI’s commitment to education and innovation in this field.
At Immersium Studio, we are very pleased to be the official provider of the immersive Virtual Reality experiences used by DTI in their training programs. These include TPM Journey VR, Family Approach VR, and Tissue Bank VR Journey.
TPM Journey VR
TPM Journey VR is the first immersive experience we developed for DTI, specifically for the TPM-DTI Foundation through its educational program, Transplant Procurement Management (TPM®). TPM® is an educational program designed to train healthcare professionals from over 100 countries, operational since 1991, with courses tailored to the needs of each region. TPM continually updates its course content and educational materials, developing its own software programs and technical equipment.
TPM Journey is a VR training experience that is part of the International Workshop in Transplant Procurement Management. The purpose of this immersive training experience is to showcase the Spanish model of organ donation and transplantation, an internationally recognized reference. Users will take a guided tour of a tertiary-level Spanish hospital, focusing on how the Transplant Coordination Office operates internally and how it coordinates with other hospital units to carry out successful donations and transplants. The experience combines conversations, theoretical explanations from the heads of each hospital unit, and practical cases of potential organ and tissue donors, which users explore interactively.
Family Approach VR
Family Approach VR is the second VR training experience we developed for the TPM-DTI Foundation as part of the educational program offered to healthcare professionals worldwide. In this experience, the user encounters a potential donor who has just passed away due to brain death. The user’s objective is to provide emotional support to the family while facilitating the donation of organs and tissues. Each decision made by the user will impact the course of the experience, and they will encounter multiple evaluative methods throughout.
If the user successfully convinces the family to proceed with the donation, they must make a final effort by asking one of the family members to stay in the room to complete a legally required survey in these procedures, the Behavioural Risk Interview (BRI). The survey includes questions that often delve into the deceased’s private life, requiring a high level of empathy and understanding from the healthcare professional when asking the questions and conducting the interview overall. Once again, this presents a significant challenge that puts emotional skills into practice to ensure effective communication, even in the most delicate moments.
Tissue Bank VR Journey
Tissue Bank VR Journey is the third immersive experience we have developed for DTI and the BST (Blood and Tissue Bank), and it allows the training of healthcare professionals in the operation of a tissue bank across all its stages.
This experience, co-designed with experts from the Blood and Tissue Bank, is an interactive virtual tour that allows users to visit a tissue bank firsthand and observe all the processes carried out within the Tissue Bank, including the organ retrieval operating room at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. This tour enables users to understand all the roles involved in its activities, as well as the organization and culture of the Tissue Bank.
“Virtual Reality saves lives” may seem like a simple phrase, but in this case, it takes on a completely real meaning, as organ and tissue transplantation can truly save the life of a patient awaiting them. Obtaining organs from a donor is not an easy process, and our training programs substantially improve this process, as demonstrated by various evaluations conducted directly by TPM-DTI. Preparing healthcare professionals emotionally and psychologically to interact with families who are not always ready to go through this process is a crucial skill that can be enhanced in a non-invasive way through Virtual Reality, making it an opportunity for improvement that should not be missed.
