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Maximizing Kidney Transplantation: the Road ForwardPowerful Patient, 2011 Week 20Host: Joyce Graff, http://powerfulpatient.org, editor@vhl.org 800-767-4845
Kidney disease is skyrocketing, but less than 4% of patients with kidney failure are being transplanted for a more normal life. Kidneys4Lives founders Malcolm Broderick and Ed Broderick believe that the solution is largely societal, not medical. Their groundbreaking Maximum Transplant Program calls for a well-organized network of self-sustaining community outreach centers, connected with a powerful website and mobile technology. A critical component will be building a collaborative care circle for each patient, and empowering disadvantaged patients through mobile devices.
Malcolm and Ed Broderick speak with Joyce about their effort to connect people with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) with the kidneys they need to improve their health and their quality of life.
They have spent the last several years studying the problems and devising plans for taking down as many as possible of the barriers in the way.
Many of these barriers are keeping people with ESRD from getting onto the transplant lists in the first place. They are working to help people understand their options, and get the assistance they need to get onto the transplant lists.
Other issues are in asking people to sign their organ donor cards and/or volunteer to be a living kidney donor.
And for a person with ESRD, knowing how to approach their family and their community is itself an issue. What they recommend is not to "ask" for a kidney, but rather simply to tell their story and help people understand why a new kidney would significantly help them.
Joyce is herself a kidney donor, and she shares the perspective of the donor, and what it meant to her see her kidney recipient's life transformed by her gift.
The Broderick brothers' new website is http://www.kidneys4lives.org It is expected to be fully operational sometime in 2012.
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