Impact of Community- Targeted Educational Campaign on Living Donor Transplants
S. Ganesh, A. Humar
Transplant, UPMC, Pittsburgh, PA
Meeting: 2021 American Transplant Congress
Abstract number: 37
Keywords: Allocation, Donation, Donors, unrelated
Topic: Clinical Science » Liver » Liver: Living Donor Liver Transplant and Partial Grafts
Session Information
Session Name: Living Donor Liver Transplant and Partial Grafts
Session Type: Rapid Fire Oral Abstract
Date: Saturday, June 5, 2021
Session Time: 4:30pm-5:30pm
Presentation Time: 4:40pm-4:45pm
Location: Virtual
*Purpose: There is an urgent need to expand access to living donor liver transplants due to a wide gap in the availability of deceased donor organs. We developed a structured educational awareness campaign and a support program, designed to overcome barriers to identifying potential live liver donors for waitlisted recipients. While most live donations are targeted at specific recipients, increasing public awareness has led to an increase in anonymous, altruistic, and unrelated donors, defined as individuals willing to donate without a previously known recipient. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the program on identification of such live donors.
*Methods: We looked at the number of donor registrations at our tertiary-care, academic medical center. The structured program included the following steps: Educational campaign to general public which was launched in October of 2018, E Blasts, and Webinars through Advocacy groups including UNOS, Donate Life America, to create awareness and educate the general public on living donation, along with creating awareness in the social media including Face book. We looked at the number of altruistic or anonymous, unrelated donors who registered, that successfully underwent or qualified for donor evaluation, since the launch of the program.
*Results: Since October of 2018 through September of 2020, a total of 8076 potential donors registered through the donor database. Of these individuals, 2757 (34%) were qualified based on the initial screening on the data base. 118 (4.2%) qualified for full donor evaluation and 40 (1.5%) either underwent donation or approved to donate.
*Conclusions: A structured program designed to identify potential live donors for waitlisted liver transplant recipients resulted in an unexpected increase in identification of unrelated, anonymous, and altruistic live donors. Continued education and awareness is essential for the ongoing process
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Ganesh S, Humar A. Impact of Community- Targeted Educational Campaign on Living Donor Transplants [abstract]. Am J Transplant. 2021; 21 (suppl 3). https://atcmeetingabstracts.com/abstract/impact-of-community-targeted-educational-campaign-on-living-donor-transplants/. Accessed December 11, 2024.« Back to 2021 American Transplant Congress