HRSA Awards $2.7 Million to Boost Organ Donation

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has announced $2.7 million in grants to help identify effective strategies for increasing organ donation.

The funds are awarded under four grant programs administered by the Division of Transplantation in HRSA's Healthcare Systems Bureau:

Social and Behavioral Interventions to Increase Solid Organ Donation ($1,093,922) is designed to improve understanding of ways to increase organ and tissue donation. These research projects will measure the potential of specific interventions to increase organ donation.
Clinical Interventions to Increase Organ Procurement ($449,742) supports research efforts to develop strategies for identifying appropriate donation candidates, evaluating donated organs, maintaining donor stability, and optimizing methods of organ procurement.
Public Education Efforts to Increase Solid Organ Donation ($1,033,347) educates the public about the demand for organs and the need for additional donation commitments.
State Donor Registry Support ($122,408) enhances the ability of existing registries to obtain, store, and communicate donation wishes on a round-the-clock basis at the time of a registrant's death. The program also promotes the establishment of donor registries in all states.

"Each year, the number of individuals waiting for a life-saving organ far exceeds the number of available donors,” said HRSA Administrator Mary K. Wakefield, Ph.D., R.N. “With more than 103,000 Americans on the national waiting list today, we have to step up our efforts to identify and fund programs that help increase the number of donors."

HRSA has Federal oversight of the nation's organ , bone marrow and cord blood donation and transplantation programs. A list of grant awards follows.

Organization	City	State	Award
Social and Behavioral Interventions
Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois	Champaign	Ill.	$341,471
National Kidney Foundation of Michigan	Washtenaw	Mich.	$243,649
Saint Barnabas Medical Center	Livingston	N.J.	$307,472
Upstate New York Transplant Services, Inc.	Buffalo	N.Y.	$201,330
Subtotal:			$1,093,922
Clinical Interventions
The Regents of the University of Michigan	Ann Arbor	Mich.	$210,999
Cleveland Clinic Foundation	Cleveland	Ohio	$238,743
Subtotal:			$449,742
Public Education Efforts to Increase Solid Organ Donation
Michigan State University	East Lansing	Mich.	$161,473
Upper Midwest Organ Procurement Organization, Inc.	St. Paul	Minn.	$189,881
The Research Foundation of SUNY on behalf of University at Buffalo	Buffalo	N.Y.	$252,457
Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System	Madison	Wis.	$331,169
West Virginia University Research Corporation	Morgantown	W.Va.	$98,367
Subtotal:			$1,033,347
State Donor Registry Support
Virginia Department of Health	Richmond	Va.	$122,408
Subtotal:			$122,408
TOTAL:			$2,699,419

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The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), part of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated, or medically vulnerable. For more information about HRSA and its programs, visit www.hrsa.gov.

Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.