Hugh Stephens presents on organ donation

PhD candidate Hugh Stephens presented his work to an assembled group of doctoral students and professors on Tuesday 24^th September.

Hugh’s presentation (which was his confirmation of candidature), was titled ‘The Potential for Organ Donation in Australia.’

Hugh is concerned about the fact that Australia has one of the lowest rates of deceased organ donation in the developed world, and is looking at ways to turn potential donors into actual donors.  For example, after a cardiac-related death, a person’s organs have to be removed within 90 minutes after death for them to be legally used. Could this time period be extended? Hugh intends to find out.   “Many patients – and certainly the general public – aren’t aware of the process that goes into organ donation,” he said.

Hugh’s study looks at medical records from all over the country, excluding the Northern Territory and Queensland, who chose not to participate. He has almost 19, 000 cases to analyse from Victoria alone.

Hugh is also a social media expert, and tweets about medicine, social media and more @hughstephens