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To find living donors for kidney transplants, a pilot program turns to social networks
A pilot at three Pennsylvania hospitals pairs 15 kidney patients with volunteer social media advocates to expand donor reach; two patients at Temple Hospital found donors so far.
- Earlier this year, a pilot program began at three Pennsylvania hospitals, pairing transplant patients with volunteer angel advocates who use social media to publicize cases, with Gift of Life Donor Program identifying five patients per site.
- Faced with a shortage of living donors, hospitals sought new outreach methods as some 90,000 people wait while most of roughly 28,000 transplants last year came from deceased donors and living kidney donations were scarce at about 6,400.
- Krissman blends storytelling with social-media tactics to find donors, combining social-media outreach, videos and microsites while Gift of Life Donor Program provided a grant of more than $100,000.
- Clinicians say early matches suggest the approach can build donor networks, with two of five Temple patients finding donors and one UPMC-Harrisburg patient undergoing transplant.
- With improved surgical safety, advocates believe the model could expand to more patients, as living-donor kidneys tend to last longer and risk has dropped from 3 deaths per 10,000 donors.
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13 Articles
13 Articles
Associated Press News+12 Reposted by 12 other sources
To find living donors for kidney transplants, a pilot program turns to social networks
Fernando Moreno has been waiting for a kidney transplant for about two years. His Philadelphia hospital connected him with a pilot project called the Great Social Experiment.
·United States
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Total News Sources13
Leaning Left4Leaning Right1Center6Last UpdatedBias Distribution55% Center
Bias Distribution
- 55% of the sources are Center
55% Center
L 36%
C 55%
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