Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Swapping Kidneys With Strangers
Health insurer Aetna has awarded a $50,000 grant to the National Kidney Registry to help the young nonprofit connect potential organ donors with recipients in matched donations and organ donation chains. Chain donations--where willing donors are linked to matching recipients allowing for several transplants to take place--have only been around since 2007. Through these chains, an altruistic donor offers a kidney on the condition that a family member or friend of the recipient pays the gift forward, which could theoretically facilitate 30 or more donations among waiting and willing pairs who lack an appropriate genetic match.
The National Kidney Registry, according to a write-up in Philanthropy Magazine, has developed a matching algorithm that excels at creating chains as well as finding the high quality genetic matches between recipients and donors. Such chains could help reduce the 80,000 person waiting list for kidney donations--as well as facilitate donations among the 5,000 to 15,000 pairs of people who are willing to donate kidneys but have no compatible matches.
As part of their announcement, Aetna also plans to encourage its 3,000 or more dialysis patients to sign up for the National Kidney Registry, which could help create additional pairs to spur on other donation chains.