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I donated a kidney to a stranger. It shouldn’t be this difficult for others to give.

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There are people like me who want to become kidney donors. If we want to increase that number, we must ease the burden on transplant donors and recipients and help them navigate the donation process.

By Shmuly Yanklowitz

For many years I debated: Should I be an organ donor?  

As a faith leader who regularly speaks about the value of life, and as a healthy individual with an interest in organ donation, I was genuinely excited about the possibility to save another person.

Nonetheless, it was a very big decision and one I did not take lightly.  Read the full article in USA Today.

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How you can help shape the future of organ donation and transplant

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A message from Dianne LaPointe Rudow, President, UNOS Board of Directors

By Dianne LaPointe Rudow, ANP-BC, DNP, FAAN, President, UNOS Board of Directors

What’s going on

I’m a nurse practitioner by training, and I’ve spent countless hours with patients—both those waiting for a transplant and those who’ve just received one. I’ve seen firsthand the highs and lows, both physical and mental, that patients, living donors, loved ones, and family members of generous deceased donors go through, and one thing remains clear: Patients like you are at the center of the U.S. organ donation and transplant system, and it is up to us in the transplant community to engage with you and learn more from your experiences. Read the complete article from UNOS here.

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Pigs Can Help Solve Our Organ Donation Problem

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Analysis by Lisa Jarvis | Bloomberg

There’s long been a gap between the relatively small number of organs available for transplant and the long waiting lists of potential recipients. This week, the world got a little closer to a future in which pigs — yes, pigs — could narrow that gap.

A new study, published in Nature, showed that a monkey lived for two years after receiving a gene-edited pig kidney. Read the full article in The Washington Post.

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Mayo Clinic Q&A: Myths about minority organ donation

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By Shennen Mao, M.D., Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: A co-worker was diagnosed with kidney disease last year. He is now on dialysis three times a week as he waits for a kidney transplant. He shared his hope to get a living donor, explaining that he will have a longer wait since there are not as many diverse people signed up as organ donors. Can you explain why this is and what can I do to help?
Read the entire article in the Chicago Tribune.

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Mayo Clinic Minute: Why diverse organ donors are needed

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By Alex Osiadacz

August is National Minority Donor Awareness Month. It’s a time of celebrating organ donation and educating people about transplantation by encouraging donor registration and promoting healthy living.

Dr. Shennen Mao, a Mayo Clinic transplant surgeon, says having a diverse pool of organ donors will help serve a growing wait list of those in need. Read the full article from the Mayo Clinic News Network.

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Monopoly Be Gone: A New Chapter in U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation

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— A recent announcement from HHS has the power to transform our deeply flawed system

by Greg Segal, Jennifer Erickson, MS, Donna Cryer, JD, and Bryan Sivak 

The U.S. government recently made a transformative announcement: it is breaking up the flawed monopoly that manages the current organ procurement system, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).

This commonsense reform marks an unequivocal win for patients, and has been heralded by patient groupsopens in a new tab or window, equity leadersopens in a new tab or window, and bipartisanopens in a new tab or window Congressional officesopens in a new tab or window alike. Read the full story in MedPage Today.

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Penn State Health expert debunks six myths about organ donation

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Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.
Right now, more than 100,000 people in the U.S. – nearly two times the population of Harrisburg – are waiting for organ transplants.

Doctors helped 42,887 of them last year, up 3.7% from 2021. Donated kidneys, hearts and livers helped them survive what was once incurable – old death sentences like heart failure, lung cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. Read more in News Medical Life Sciences.

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Actions to strengthen the U.S. organ donation and transplant system

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Driving system-wide improvement to better serve patients

April 6, 2023
More than 42,800 organ transplants were performed in the U.S. in 2022, an increase of nearly 1,500 over the previous year. The system’s success reflects its commitment to continuous improvement, which has driven 10 consecutive years of increases in the number of deceased-donor transplants performed. Thanks to the efforts of the national transplant network, 23 percent more deceased-donor transplants are performed today than five years ago. Read the full article from UNOS.

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