The Secretary's Donation Initiative

Delivering on a promise he made on his first day on the job, Secretary Thompson announced his 'Gift of Life Donation Initiative' on April 17, 2001.  

"Fifteen Americans die each day while waiting for an organ to become available. More than 75,000 men, women, and children now wait for a transplant to replace a failing kidney, heart, liver, lung or pancreas. Every 16 minutes, another person joins the waiting list.

Thousands more wait for tissue transplants, desperately need marrow to stay alive, and require blood transfusions. The facts are just astounding! Someone dies every 96 minutes because there aren't enough organs to go around. Sixty percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood, however, only five percent do. And, only 25 to 35 percent of those who need a marrow transplant will find a match among their family members."

The 5 kick-off elements include:

• Aetna

• Allfirst Bank

• Alticor

• American Airlines

• American Chiropractic Association

• Aon Corporation

• Ashland, Inc.

• Bank of America

• Bar Laboratories

• Baxter Healthcare

• Daimler Chrysler Corporation/United Auto Workers

• Family Circle Magazine, a publication of Gruner and Jahr

• Ford Motor Company

• General Motors Corporation

• MetLife

• 3M

• United States Postal Service

• Verizon

3. National Forum on Donor Registries.  To help ensure that families and hospitals know an individual's wishes, HHS plans to look at mechanisms, including donor registries, to assure that an individual's intent to donate is clearly communicated. The Secretary has requested that HHS' Office of Inspector General conduct a study of existing registries that have been established by 16 states. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will organize a national forum on the potential of registries, the options available and guidelines for registry development.

4. National Gift of Life Medal.  The Secretary will support efforts to create a national Gift of Life medal presented to families to honor their donors.

5. Driver's Education Curriculum.  HHS will create a model curriculum for drivers' education classes, and will encourage state and local education systems to require this curriculum. This initiative is based on a similar program  implemented in Wisconsin.

Future Elements:

HHS will launch additional elements under the initiative, including review of potential federal responsibilities for monitoring the long-term safety and effectiveness of living donation (in which a kidney or part of a liver or lung are transplanted from a living donor to a recipient). In recent years, living donation has been the fastest growing source of transplanted organs, and Secretary Thompson believes HHS should do its part to ensure the safety and effectiveness of such procedures, for donor and transplant patients alike.

HHS also plans to work with other federal agencies and state governments to promote donor awareness efforts, and examine other possible steps for ensuring that individual's wishes to donate are recorded and carried out.

Ongoing Elements for Creating a Donation Friendly America:

While medical advances now enable more than 22,000 Americans per year to receive organ transplants that save or enhance their lives, not enough organs are available to help everyone in need. As a result, about 5,500 people die in the U.S. each year -- about 15 every day -- while waiting for a donated kidney, liver, heart, lung, or other organ. Today, more than 76,000 people are on the national organ transplant waiting list.

In recent years, progress has been made in creating awareness of the need for organ and tissue donation. Most Americans indicate they support organ donation. Nonetheless, only abut 50 percent of families asked to donate a loved one's organs agree to do so. Moreover, thousands of opportunities to donate are missed each year, either because families do not know what their loved ones wanted, or because potential donors are not identified for organ procurement organizations and their families are never asked.

The Department of Health and Human Services is committed to creating a donation friendly America.  Focusing on known barriers to donation, HHS will take action to achieve substantial increases in donation and transplantation.

Ongoing Partnerships for a Donation Friendly America:

The essential role of families in consenting to donation is a key message of the initiative. Even when a donor card, driver's license, will, or living will is available to indicate the donor's wishes, next-of-kin will be asked to provide consent before donation can occur. HHS has teamed up with the Coalition on Donation, whose members include national and local organizations, to deliver a consistent, unified message on the importance of family discussion. With the Advertising Council, the Coalition on Donation has implemented a multi-year, national public awareness campaign. Materials developed for partners of the initiative feature the Coalition's message, "DONATE LIFE."

National advertising and public awareness campaigns help to communicate consistent messages about organ and tissue donation, but individuals and families also need to learn about the importance of donation from people and organizations they trust. HHS is building strong partnerships with health care, community, educational, religious, minority, professional, and other organizations to ensure that Americans are given the opportunity to choose donation. 

Health Care Community:  The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians are partnering with HHS to encourage physicians to make donation materials available in their offices and to discuss donation with patients. Already, one state medical society (the Texas Medical Association) is taking on organ donation as one of its major issues. Physicians in Texas are encouraged to offer educational materials in their offices and to express support for organ donation to patients who ask. The American Red Cross will, through its nationwide community network, expand upon its current public awareness and education activities to increase organ and tissue donation. The American Nurses Association will educate its members and provide materials. The American Association of Health Plans will encourage plans to provide members with educational materials. The National Medical Association will help educate minority medical professionals, especially through HHS' MOTTEP program (see below.) The American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons are also partners in the initiative.

Law Associations:  The American Bar Association is partnering with HHS to encourage attorneys to discuss donation with their clients during estate planning. The ABA's Real Property, Probate, and Trust Section will distribute materials, stimulate continuing legal education programs, and encourage state and local bar associations to adopt resolutions similar to the ABA's 1992 resolution that urges attorneys to get involved in donor education efforts.

Educational Organizations:  The Center for Study of the Freshman Experience and Students in Transition is teaming up with HHS to provide donor information to new college and university students in orientation packets and programs. In addition, HHS= Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is funding a demonstration project with the American College Health Association, a national organization with more than 900 member institutions, to implement and test the effectiveness of college campus campaigns to increase donation. The project is modeled after a successful HRSA-sponsored pilot project at the University of Rhode Island. Finally, under a HRSA grant, TransWeb University has developed a new interactive electronic program to educate school-age children about organ donation and transplantation available at the Web site http://www.transweb.org/journey.

Religious Organizations:  The Congress of National Black Churches, representing 65,000 congregations, is partnering with HHS in a national project to educate its members about organ, tissue, and bone marrow donation. The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, with support from HRSA, developed a program guide on organ donation and transplantation which it distributed to its 850 member congregations. In addition, the Presbyterian Church USA, the General Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, and other faith organizations were asked by HHS to urge congregations across the nation to consider donation during the annual National Donor Sabbath. The next National Donor Sabbath is planned for November 9-11, 2001.

Donor and Recipient Groups:  The National Kidney Foundation's Donor Family Council and HHS have teamed up to create a new Web site at http://www.kidney.org/donor to provide information and bereavement support for donor families. In addition, HRSA, the Donor Family Council, and other national donor, recipient, and transplant organizations are sponsoring the seventh annual Donor Recognition Ceremony in July 2001 in Washington, D.C. 

The National Minority Organ/Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP):  A collaborative effort between NIH's Office of Research on Minority Health and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, is the first national program specifically designed to empower minority communities to become involved in education activities to increase the number of minority donors and transplant recipients. More minority organ donors are needed to increase the chances that a well-matched organ will be available to minorities waiting for transplants. Now in 15 sites across the country, MOTTEP's target audience represents the African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Alaskan Native populations. MOTTEP also includes a health promotion and disease prevention component, to reduce the incidence of conditions such as diabetes and hypertension that can lead to organ failure.

Business Organizations:  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Washington Business Group on Health, representing many large and small businesses and organizations, will help their members conduct employee organ and tissue donation education campaigns. The Home Depot will also conduct educational activities for employees.

State Organizations:  HHS is working with the National Governors' Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to disseminate information about model programs and legislation and to encourage state activities to increase donation.

Media:  The James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness will reach out to national media organizations, especially using its films to build public awareness of the need for organ donation.

In addition, with assistance from the Office of Personnel Management, HHS is collaborating with other federal agencies to encourage federal employees to become donors, to share their decision with family members, and to serve as a model for the nation. For example, the Department of Defense, which has taken a progressive approach by routinely asking patients in its health care system to consider donation, is stepping up its efforts to encourage donation by making materials available in its treatment facilities and by improving the education of its providers on effective communication with patients and their families. In addition, the Office of Personnel Management included a full-page ad on donation in the Guide to Federal Employees Health Benefits Plans which was distributed to all federal employees. HHS is providing brochures, posters, ID badge stickers and other materials to Federal agencies to share with their employees.

Learning More About What Works to Improve Donation and Transplantation

On April 17^th, HRSA announced the availability of $3 million in new grant funds to continue to support demonstrations of innovative approaches for increasing donation.

HHS agencies including HRSA, the National Institutes of Health, and the Health Care Financing Administration will conduct activities to identify the best approaches to increasing donation and priorities for future research.

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For more information on the Federal Government's donation enhancing activities, visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Web site at http://www.organdonor.gov, or contact: Division of Transplantation, Health Resources and Services Administration 5600 Fishers Lane Rockville, MD 20857 301-443-7577 / 301-443-1267 fax.