MADISON, Wis. – UW Health has launched a new program to educate the public about living organ donation to motivate more people to say “yes” to becoming living organ donors.
The Living Donor Initiative aims to increase the number of living kidney and liver donors at the UW Health Transplant Center, which served approximately 100 living liver and kidney donors last year. The goal is to increase this number by 20% over two years, according to Dr. Dixon Kaufman, director, UW Health Transplant Center.
“Living donation is the gift of a lifetime because a kidney from a living donor often lasts longer than a kidney from a deceased donor,” said Kaufman, who is also a professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “We see the urgent need for more donors every day, which motivated us to launch this initiative.”
There are more than 90,000 people nationwide on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. Those patients can spend years on dialysis until they have a match, and 11 people die each day waiting for a kidney.
The need for living liver donors is also great, with nearly 9,000 kids and adults in the United States waiting for a liver transplant. The liver is the only organ that can regenerate, which allows adults to donate to another adult or to a child, according to Scot Johnson, manager of living donation at the UW Health Transplant Center.
“The donor’s and the recipient’s livers will grow to the correct size within three months, and both can expect to go on to lead healthy, active lives,” he said. “Donors have a significant impact by saving lives and decreasing wait times for patients facing life-threatening conditions.”
The Living Donor Initiative will expand community outreach and education efforts to increase awareness and understanding of living donation.
To do this, the living donor team will develop educational materials and travel to health departments, wellness fairs and other community events around Wisconsin and northern Illinois to provide accurate information and answer questions about the living donation process, according to Melissa Roberts, senior director, UW Health Transplant Center.
“The impact of a face-to-face conversation is priceless,” she said. “When people talk with someone who truly understands living donation, they’re more likely to see themselves as potential donors.”
To further support transplant patients, a living donor recipient navigator has joined the UW Health Transplant Center. This role is designed to educate kidney and liver transplant candidates about the benefits of living donation and assist them in identifying potential donors within their support networks, including through social media or faith-based organizations. The navigator will offer practical advice on how to make the “big ask” of potential donors.
The Living Donor Initiative will also expand ongoing medical research at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
Dr. Didier Mandelbrot, medical director of the UW Health Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Programs, and professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, currently studies the process of living kidney donor evaluation to maximize donor safety and transplant immunosuppression.
This new initiative will support research on the long-term health of living donors, according to Mandelbrot.
“Living donors give so much; it is our responsibility to ensure we understand how that gift may affect their health, not just in the weeks after surgery, but for years to come,” he said.
Jeff and Lynn Bakiares made a significant financial contribution through the Virginia Lee Cook Foundation to provide the primary philanthropic support for this initiative. Mandelbrot holds the Virginia Lee Cook Professorship in Transplant Nephrology in the Department of Medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
The UW Health Transplant Center has served more than 4,000 living donors since 1967 and is the only transplant center in Wisconsin that performs living liver transplant surgeries in adults. To learn more about living donation, visit uwhealth.org/living-donor.
UW Health Transplant Center
The UW Health Transplant Center is one of just six centers in the nation actively transplanting hearts, kidneys, livers, lungs and pancreases for adults and children, with more than 20,000 organs transplanted since 1966. The center is home to the largest renal autotransplant program in the nation, as well as one of the nation’s longest-running living donor programs, serving kidney and liver donors and recipients. To register as an organ donor visit heroicdeed.com.
