Mission
Donated organs, especially kidneys are in very short supply. Today, about 84,000 people in the United States are on the UNOS waiting lists for donor kidneys. Each year approximately 15,000 kidney transplants are performed at U.S. transplant centers. Live donors comprise about half of those transplants with the other half coming from deceased donors. About half the potential recipients will die before they can obtain a working kidney.
While today’s successful kidney transplants and live organ donor gifts rightfully garner much publicity and acclaim, little public attention is given to post-transplant issues like patient non-compliance with accepted medical practice. Too often, transplanted organs are rejected by the patient’s body because the patient, for a variety of reasons, has stopped taking the immunosuppressant medications prescribed by his or her doctors. Estimates as high as 30% of post-transplant rejections are due to patient non-compliance.
The loss of a kidney transplant due to patient ignorance or negligence is a tragedy and must be eliminated. Non-compliance is often due to a state of mind known as "learned helplessness," in which the patient abrogates his or her responsibility for their own health care to others. It is common among kidney patients who have thrice-weekly treatments in dialysis clinics. This attitude of passivity often carries over to post-transplantation.
My mission is to provide formal education programs, associated with kidney transplant centers, aimed at those already on kidney waiting lists, and to mentor patients in the post-transplant phase and help them stay compliant. Greatly improved patient education can and should have a huge impact on kidney transplant longevity, while at the same time having a positive impact on reducing our national health care deficit.