HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced 13 grants worth $4.27 million to support social, behavioral and clinical intervention programs that lead to increased organ and tissue donation. 

“These projects offer real hope and promise for increasing our national donation rate and saving the lives of thousands of individuals waiting for life-saving organs and tissue,” Secretary Thompson said.  “They help us get out the message that organ donation saves lives.”
 
Grants are awarded from two HHS grant programs: Social and Behavioral Interventions to Increase Organ and Tissue Donation, and Clinical Interventions to Increase Organ Procurement.  Organizations receiving awards include an affiliate of the National Kidney Foundation, an eye bank, organ procurement organizations and schools of medicine. The three-year grants are administered by HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration through its Division of Transplantation. 

The social and behavioral interventions program, established in 1999, emphasizes rigorous methodology and evaluation to test the efficacy of interventions meant to increase organ and tissue donation.   Total funding for the eight awards is $2,776,690.

The clinical interventions program, funded for the first time in FY 2002 as part of Secretary Thompson’s Gift of Life Donation Initiative, evaluates clinical interventions to increase the number of organ donors and the number of organs recoverable from existing organ donors.  It also promotes research to evaluate and disseminate model interventions with the greatest impact on donation.   This year’s grants will support five projects, totaling $1,493,728.
 
Lists of grantees by program and their first-year awards follow below:
 
 

SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS TO INCREASE ORGAN AND TISSUE DONATION FY 2003 GRANTS
Institution and Project	City	State	Award
Arizona Kidney Foundation “Hispanic Live Organ Donation:  A Strength Based Approach”	Phoenix	Ariz.	$463,488
University of Miami School of Medicine “A Model Intervention for Increasing Intent of a New Immigrant Population (Haitian in Miami-Dade County, Florida) to Donate Organs and Tissue”	Miami	Fla.	375,559
Organ Procurement Agency of Michigan “A Culturally Sensitive Intervention to Increase Organ Donation Registration Among Asian Pacific Americans”	Ann Arbor	Mich.	299,271
New York Alliance for Donation, Inc. “A Multi-Campus Classroom Intervention to Increase Organ and Tissue Donation”	Albany	N.Y.	260,854
Mount Sinai School of Medicine “Improving Organ Donation in Chinese Communities in New York City”	New York	N.Y.	317,161
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine “Testing the Early Referral and Request Approach (ERRA) Model”	Cleveland	Ohio	471,087
LifePoint, Inc. “A Comprehensive Approach to Organ Donation by Incorporation of Family Support Counselors as Members of the Hospital Critical Care Team”	Charleston	S.C.	418,903
South Dakota Lions Eye Bank “A Culturally-Competent Intervention to Increase Organ, Eye, and Tissue Donation on South Dakota’s (SD) Indian Reservations:  A Collaborative Project by the SD Lion’s Eye Bank and SD State University, College of Nursing”	Sioux Falls	S.D.	170,367
TOTAL:			$2,776,690

 
                                                                
 

CLINICAL  INTERVENTIONS TO INCREASE ORGAN PROCUREMENT FY 2003 GRANTS
Institution and Project	City	State	Award
The Children’s Hospital “Infant Heart Transplantation from Non-Heart Beating Donors: A Strategy to Reduce Waiting Mortality”	Denver	Colo.	$231,768
University of Miami School of Medicine “Use of Perfluorinated Hydrocarbons During Pancreas Procurement to Improve Utilization of Cadaveric Marginal and Non-Heartbeating Donor Organs for Clinical Islet Transplantation”	Miami	Fla.	472,342
Trustees of Columbia University “Hypothermic Machine Preservation of Liver Grants for Transplantation”	New York	N.Y.	284,244
University of Pittsburgh “Hemoadsorption to Improve Organ Donor Recovery”	Pittsburgh	Pa.	278,614
University of Pittsburgh “Validating Identification Criteria of Donors After Cardiac Death”	Pittsburgh	Pa.	226,760
TOTAL:			$1,493,728
GRAND TOTAL:			$4,270,418