Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a decline in donation and transplant programs worldwide. Telehealth was explored as a strategy to continue organ procurement activity. The aim of this project was to develop and test I-DTI, an online medical platform for health care professionals specialized in the field of organ donation and transplant, that provides second-opinion consultancy and instant-messaging services.
Materials and methods: The Donation and Transplantation Institute (DTI Foundation), in collaboration with the developers of an operative communication engine (Medxat/Be-Hit), designed the I-DTI platform, via a web-based application. I-DTI contents were created by the DTI Foundation medical team and international experts in organ donation and transplantation. I-DTI was launched in 2020 in a 6-month pilot phase, in which hospitals from India (Kerala), Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Sri Lanka were included. In the pilot phase, about 60 health care professionals were involved and >20 international experts were enrolled to respond to incoming inquiries. The following topics were considered for this review: organ donation, organ transplantation, transplant follow-up, tissue donation, and COVID-19. Data collected were entered anonymously into an encrypted database for academic purposes. A survey was then conducted for all users to improve its acceptance and feasibility.
Results: On average, the second-opinion service was consulted 2 times per week by the participants, and experts' opinions were delivered in <24 hours. An intuitive user interface led participants to use the messaging service daily. Active dissemination contributed to I-DTI growth, achieving 300 users from >20 countries within the first year.
Conclusions: I-DTI has proved to be a feasible tool to support health care professionals, for knowledge exchange and communication, ensuring access to international best practices. Nevertheless, it is imperative that medical providers actively encourage the use of innovative solutions available, especially in the areas with restricted access to knowledge.