February 11, 2016 – Transplant Champion

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Anchor lead: A new advocacy program helps find kidney donors, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Living donation, where one person gives up a kidney to someone who needs one, is practical and safe for most.  Now a new program developed by Dorry Segev, a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues, is helping to bolster awareness of the need for kidneys for individuals on a transplant list.

Segev: We created a program called the Live Donor Champion program, where people bring their champion with them, we teach them about kidney disease, how to initiate conversations about kidney disease, how to be an advocate.  We teach them about their social network.  And then the champions actually go out and they discuss this and they spread awareness about this.  In our pilot studies we had phenomenal responses to this and impressive transplant rates among the people who participated in this so now we’re offering this to everyone in our center.   :31

Segev says people with kidney disease are often reluctant to talk about it, so the advocates do so on their behalf.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.