Peer Review
Monitoring Living Liver Donation – The Center’s Clinical Policy Committee (CPC) has begun its annual transplant center peer review site visits at Columbia University, NYU, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Westchester Medical Center, and Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester to assess the process for informed choice, the role of the independent donor advocate team (IDAT) and educational materials provided to living liver donors.  A review of the 2005 living liver donors will allow the Center to make recommendations to the NYS Department of Health regarding regulatory clarifications, definitions and/or changes that need to be addressed.

Data-Sharing
Understanding Liver Transplantation in New York State – Through contracts with the NYS Department of Health and the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) the Center collects and shares center-specific liver transplant data with its members. The Center will maintain a statewide living liver donor database that looks at the characteristics, outcomes and ongoing transplant-related issues for living liver donors.

Living Donation – Identifying Quality of Life (QOL) Issues– We are working to determine the important issues facing living liver donors after their surgery. Living donors who donated at Columbia University, New York University, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Westchester Medical Center or Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester in 2004 have been sent post-donation questionnaires related to the financial and psychosocial impact of living donation.  Results of the surveys will be shared with the transplant programs to aid them in modifying living donor education and supports as needed.  Recent living liver donors at any of the New York liver programs, are invited to take this opportunity to register themselves on the Center’s database to be contacted for periodic surveys.

Organ Donation is part of our mission
Working with Organ Procurement Organizations (OPO) – The Center sees the value of the gift of life given by each donor, particularly for those individuals waiting for a life-saving liver transplant. The New York State OPOs generously share liver donation data with the Center to look at liver allocation, use and need.

Recognizing our Partners in Donation – In an effort to express our appreciation to the NYS organ recovery professionals, the Center coordinated “recognition events” hosted by the liver transplant centers in May/June 2005, where OPO staff members were introduced to those recipients whose lives they had touched.

Sign Up to be an Organ and Tissue Donor Now! – The NYS Department of Health has created a registry to indicate your wish to become an organ and tissue donor. You can register online, but don’t forget to tell your family that you want to be a donor!

Peer-Based Education for Pre-transplant Patients and Living Donors

On September 12, 2006, the New York Center for Liver Transplantation was awarded a three-year research grant by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Division of Transplantation (HRSA/DoT) entitled “Increasing Liver Donation through Peer-Developed Education.”  The grant project looks to increase the consent rate for living liver donation in the five transplant centers in New York State by using peer-developed educational materials shared by living liver donors. 

The first of its kind, “Increasing Liver Donation through Peer-Developed Education,” will enable pre-transplant patients and potential living liver donors to have access to resources and educational materials about the impacts of the living liver donation process from the perspectives of past living liver donors.

The proposed project is an outgrowth of a Department of Health mandated program in New York State; where quality-of-life of living liver donors is tracked post donation through a self-administered Living Liver Donor Post-Donation Survey. This project will entail using general information from the survey to develop and implement the educational intervention with pre-transplant patients and living liver donors.

The project will be implemented at the five active liver programs in New York State:

• Mount Sinai Medical Center
• New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia
• New York University Hospitals Center
• University of Rochester-Strong Memorial Hospital
• Westchester Medical Center

For more information, please contact Joan Kruegler, Project Manager, at (518) 533-7877 ext. 3.