Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) Corporation today announced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded a $1.2 million grant ($400,000/year for three years) to ECMC’s Regional Center of Excellence for Transplantation and Kidney Care for social and behavioral interventions to increase solid organ and tissue donation.
Liise Kayler, MD, MS, FACS, Program Director, Regional Center of Excellence for Transplantation and Kidney Care at ECMC; and Clinical Professor, SUNY Buffalo Department of Surgery, Division Chief, Kidney, and Pancreas Transplant Program, said, “We greatly appreciate this grant from HRSA. Living-donor kidney transplantation is the most successful form of renal replacement for patients with kidney failure. Despite increasing availability of information about living kidney transplantation and donation, there remains a vast chasm between what professionals know and what patients understand. We intend to close the information gap by developing an effective means of communication and explanation that we anticipate will result in improved understanding and informed decision-making about organ donation that could benefit eligible patients whose lives can be saved through kidney transplantation.”
