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:
1. "Workplace
Partnership for Life". This feature
of the Secretary's initiative involves a collaboration with companies
and employee groups of all sizes to make information on donation
available to employees. Employers and employee groups will be encouraged
to develop their own campaigns. The following are charter
members of the Workplace Partnership:
-
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
2. Model Donor Card.
The Secretary unveiled a new model donor card that includes provisions
for designating whether all organs and tissues may be donated, as
well as lines for signatures by two witnesses. Witnesses ideally
should be family members or others who are most likely to be contacted
in the case of an emergency to help ensure that the donor's wishes
will be carried out. An informal survey performed with the help
of the American Bar Association confirmed that the card is compatible
with state law in 50 states and the District of Columbia.
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 17th, 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.
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