| Paired Kidney Donation 2006-03-25, 11:34 am |
| I would like to introduce myself and the organization I represent. My
name is Jim Filson and I am a kidney donor and Board Member of a
non-profit corporation call Organ Swap. As you are aware there are
over 60,000 people in the United States alone waiting for a kidney
transplant; over 3,000 die annually for the lack of a donor kidney.
Organ Swap is a 6 month old endeavor by four individuals to enlist the
power of the internet to provide a nationwide database to match
"unmatched donor-patient pairs." This practice, called "paired
donation," uses an algorithm to match incompatible pairs and results
in a swap where donor of the first pair gives a kidney to the patient
in the second pair, and the donor in the second pair gives a kidney to
the patient in the first pair.
Paired donation is only used by approximately 25 major hospitals and
has only yielded a little over 100 matches since 2001, largely because
there is no national program or network in place. It is estimated that
if only 10% of the kidney-transplant hopefuls participated in a
national network, the saving would be over $750 million annually.
Organ Swap's objective is to expand the universe of potential donors
to a patient with a non-compatible family member or friend. Organ Swap
provides free registration on a nationwide database that can link an
available donor and non-compatible patient with another incompatible
pair and create a life-saving match.
Key to Paired Donation success is getting Organ Swap known to kidney
transplant support groups and related associations, and having
incompatible pairs register.
I am hoping you will examine our site and share it with members of your
organization and post it on your web site. Please contact us if you
have questions for us, or provide any guidance on how to become known
and accepted within the community.
I want to thank you for your consideration and assistance,
Jim Filson
Organ Swap Inc.
Board Member, Communications
Jim.filson@organswap.org
www.organswap.org
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