Dr (Colonel) Avnish Seth is Head, Manipal Organ Sharing and Transplant (MOST) and Chairman, Manipal Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Sciences at Manipal Hospital, New Delhi. A Transplant Hepatologist, Dr Seth has pioneered deceased organ donation for two decades and is currently spearheading organ donation and transplant activities in 33 Manipal Hospitals. He set up organ donation program in 8 Armed Forces hospitals as Founder-Director, Armed Forces Organ Retrieval and Transplant Authority (AORTA: 2006-9) and in 29 Fortis Hospitals as Founder-Director Fortis Organ Retrieval and Transplant (FORT: 2012-2022). His Seth-Donation of Organs and Tissues (S-DOT) score is widely used for assessment of hospitals for best practices in the field. He established the IDEAL (Immediate Donation of Eyes After Life) protocol, a nursing and smart phone based system of counselling families that has led to over 500 cornea donations.
Dr Seth has actively participated in ISODP Congress held at Seoul, Geneva, Dubai and Las Vegas. He is Chair of the Expert Committee of 'Ang Daan Yojna', an organ donation initiative by Government of Haryana, India. He is member of Apex Technical Committee of National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO), member of Expert Committee on Organ Transplant, Government of Sikkim and member of Advisory Board of MOHAN Foundation. Dr Seth is the Lead and first author of the joint consensus statement on Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) in India, published in 2022. He is the Organising Chairman of the Commonwealth Tribute to Life conference held at New Delhi in March 2024.
Dr Seth is credited with performing the first stool transplant in India in 2014 and is pioneering research on stool transplant for Ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s Disease, IBS, Alcoholic liver disease, Parkinson’s, Autism and Metabolic Syndrome. Formerly, Professor of Medicine at Delhi University, he has served on the Governing Council of Indian Society of Gastroenterology and Society of GI Endoscopy of India. He has more than 100 publications and
Dr Seth was awarded the ‘Vishisht Seva Medal’ for distinguished service by the President of India.
