HHS LAUNCHES SUPPORT FOR NOVEL PROGRAMS
TO INCREASE ORGAN DONATIONS

The Department of Health and Human Services today launched a 3-year nationwide effort to test new ways of increasing organ donation. First year awards announced today total nearly $5.2 million, and the grants are planned to total more than $13 million over the next three years. The awards were announced by Vice President Al Gore at a White House ceremony.

"These projects will help us break new ground in organ donation," said Secretary Shalala. "Most people support the idea of donation, but only about 50 percent of families and others consent to donation of their loved one's organs when asked. These grants will help us develop new strategies encouraging more families to agree to donation."

These awards are part of the Clinton Administration's National Organ and Tissue Donation Initiative, a comprehensive plan targeting the donor shortage launched by Vice President Gore and Secretary Shalala on Dec.17, 1997. The program is administered by HHS= Health Resources and Services Administration's Division of Transplantation in the Office of Special Programs.

Among the many innovative strategies, the 18 projects include efforts to use the Internet for notifying families of an individual's desire to donate; to increase minority donations; to test donor education strategies in the work place, during end-of-life planning, and with drivers license renewals; and to improve the ability of health professionals to effectively handle end-of-life discussions and care. Evaluation is a critical element of this grant program. Grantees are required to be part of a consortium consisting of at least one agency with transplant experience and one with research expertise. Grantees will evaluate the effectiveness of new or existing strategies based on how well they work in increasing organ procurement, improving consent rates for organ donation, and/or increasing the number of individuals who declare their intent to donate and notify their families of their wishes.

"These projects combine creative ideas with good evaluations so we will know where to place future emphasis," said HRSA Administrator Claude Earl Fox, M.D., M.P.H. "Transplantation offers patients an increasingly successful treatment for organ-related diseases. Now we must ensure that organ donations increase to give more people the benefit of this life-saving and life-enhancing procedure."

The grants are awarded to stimulate organ and tissue donation to help the more than 65,000 people on the national transplant waiting list. Each year, only about 5,500 deaths in the United States result in organ donation, but the estimated potential number of donors per year ranges from 8,000 to 15,000. More than 4,000 patients awaiting a transplant die each year--some 12 to 13 each day--because of the critical shortage of transplantable organs.

HRSA is the lead HHS agency responsible for Federal oversight of the Nation's Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. HRSA's Division of Transplantation developed this grant program in collaboration with the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.

For more information on the grant program or on organ donation visit the national initiative's dedicated Web site at http://www.organdonor.gov.

The list of grantees follows:

FY 1999 Extramural Support Program

Model Interventions to Increase Organ and Tissue Donation

An existing transplant education
Internet site will be expanded with a
new path on the donor family's view of
organ donation to encourage donor
registration. A specially-designed
electronic greeting card will notify
family members of the registrant's
desire to donate. Contact: Eleanor
Jones, (734) 998-7314.

The grantee will collaborate with
hospitals in Rhode Island,
Massachusetts, and New Hampshire to
increase health professionals' comfort
and skills in end-of-life care,
discussions about death and dying, and
family support to improve the donation
request process. Contact: Mildred Z.
Solomon, (617) 969-7100, x2404.

A program to use funeral pre-planning
activities for the introduction of
family discussions about donation will
be implemented and evaluated. Contact:
Catherine Paykin, M.S.S.W., (212)
889-2210, x144.

Sixteen organ procurement
organizations will work to improve
family donation consent rates by
training procurement coordinators to
match donation requests with a
family's readiness to donate. Contact:
Thomas A. Armata, (804) 323-9895.

Building on success with increasing
Hispanic community support for
donation, the grantee will facilitate
training programs sensitive to
cultural diversities to improve
donation support among African
Americans and Asians in Northern
California. Contact: Eugene Osborne,
R.N., M.A., (559) 226-9002.

Strategies, including an ethnically
sensitive media campaign, will
encourage African-Americans to join
the state organ donor registry and
discuss their desires with families.
Contact: Martin F. Mozes, M.D., (312)
803-7626, x120.

In collaboration with the United
Parcel Service, the grantee will study
the impact of a work-place donor
education program as a model for
corporate education programs
nationwide. Contact: Jenny Miller,
(606) 278-3492.

This multidisciplinary project with
physicians, nurses, hospital clergy
and organ procurement coordinators
will implement and evaluate a
family-centered program focusing on
end-of-life decision making and organ
donation discussions. Contact: Michael
A. Williams, M.D., (410) 614-3460.

Emory University/LifeLink of Georgia, 212,388 606,716 Atlanta

Four Georgia hospitals will replicate
Emory University Hospital's successful
donation program, "Renaissance
Project," which enhanced family
support practices and organ donations.
Contact: Jennie P. Perryman, R.N.,
Ph.D., (404) 712-4444.

Hospitals in Detroit, Chicago, Seattle
and Houston with untapped donor
potential will replicate LifeGift's
successful pilot program which
increased Houston-area organ donations
by placing "in house procurement
coordinators" in two Level 1 trauma
centers. Contact: Samuel M. Holtzman,
(713) 523-4438.

An intensive education and training
program targeting African American
religious and spiritual leaders in
Harris County, Texas, intends to
increase family donation discussions
and minority community support.
Contact: Samuel M. Holtzman, (713)
523-4438.

An ethnically sensitive media campaign
aims to reverse the declining rate of
donation consent among Sacramento area
Hispanic families. Contact: Tracy
Bryan, (916) 567-1600.

A curriculum will be designed to
introduce organ and tissue donation
and transplantation to elementary and
secondary school students to increase
their commitment to donation. Contact:
Diane Lewis, (405) 840-5551.

Albany Medical College/The Center for 272,504 783,882 Donation and Transplant, Albany, N.Y.

A volunteer program to teach mothers
of organ donors to counsel potential
donor families about donation will be
replicated and evaluated. Contact:
Frank Taft, (518) 262-5606.

Grantee will develop convenient,
one-stop ATM-like kiosks in public
venues, where individuals can renew
their driver's licenses and record
their wishes on organ donation at the
same time. Contact: Louise M. Jacobbi,
(504) 837-3355.

Upstate New York Transplant Services, 281,917 810,330 Buffalo, N.Y.

Medical students and residents and
African American community educators
will be trained to develop culturally
sensitive strategies for approaching
and educating African Americans about
donation to increase donor
registration and family discussions.
Contact: Mark Simon, (716) 853-6667.

Donor Network of Arizona, Phoenix 238,143 880,937

This project plans to increase
donation consent rates among Hispanic
families through community, media, and
requester outreach to increase donor
awareness and family discussions.
Contact: Sara Pace Jones, (602)
222-2200.

Howard University, Washington, D.C. 145,914 464,163

This project seeks to increase donor
registration among young people when
obtaining driver's licenses by
integrating materials into existing
driver's education curriculum that
will increase family discussion on
organ donations, raise positive
consent rates and increase youth
awareness of organ donation needs.
Contact: Gary Harris, Ph.D., (202)
806-5567.

TOTAL $5,196,321 $13,296,055

Note

HHS press releases are available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.hhs.gov. Last revised on April 10, 2001