HRSA Announces Grants to Support State Donor Registries

Elizabeth M. Duke, administrator of HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), has announced four grants totaling $467,510 to help states create and improve statewide donor registries to increase organ and tissue donation. Donor registries are electronic databases of individuals’ donation wishes that are accessible day or night by appropriate personnel.

Grant recipients are:

• Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services health Research Inc. (Jefferson City), $150,934;
• Health Research Inc. (Rensselaer, N.Y.), $97,872;
• North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles (Raleigh), $141,104; and
• West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles (Charleston), $77,600.

Awarded under the State Donor Registry Support Program, the grants help states without a registry develop one and help states with a registry make enhancements to keep pace with technology and new information. The aim of the program, administered by HRSA’s Division of Transplantation, is to help ensure that all U.S. residents have an opportunity to indicate and store their donation wishes where they can be reliably retrieved at their time of death.

Illinois launched the first donor registry in 1993. Today, 46 states and the District of Columbia have a donor registry.

While a record 29,000 transplant operations took place in 2006, the need for more donors remains critical. Close to 97,000 patients are on the national waiting list to receive an organ, and 18 will die every day because a life-saving organ doesn’t become available to them.

For more information on organ and tissue donation, visit www.organdonor.gov.

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