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Media coverage of Michael Rees and Paired Kidney Donation
Jump to coverage: CBS Evening News | CNN | U.S. News and World Report | Associated Press | Reuters | Toledo Blade | The Detroit Free Press | WTVG 13abc | Boston.com | The Arizona Republic | MedPage Today | Science Daily
CBS Evening News with Katie Couric
Stranger Kidney Swap Chain Has Potential
When Matthew Jones decided to donate a kidney to a stranger, the Michigan father of five had no idea he'd be starting a lifesaving, "pay it forward" chain.
His kidney donation to a Phoenix woman in 2007 set off a long-running organ swap that resulted in 10 sick people getting new kidneys over a year. It hasn't ended yet.
This chain of living donors and others like it could help increase the number of kidney transplants, lead to better matches that will increase survival and even reduce spending on costly, long-term dialysis, says the Ohio doctor behind the effort.
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CNN
Donation Chain has led to 10 KidneyTransplants
A 28-year-old man from Michigan decided to donate a kidney to atotal stranger, setting into motion a kidney swap that over
many months hasresulted in 10 people getting a donor organ--and the process is still ongoing.
It's the longest series of such transplants to date, although such "kidneychain" transplants are becoming increasingly common
because of better computerprograms for matching donors, according to a report published Wednesday in theNew England Journal
of Medicine.
"It is becoming more common, but it's still not something that's happeningevery day," said Dr. Robert A. Montgomery of Johns
Hopkins University inBaltimore, Maryland, where four of the 10 transplants were performed. "It'sstill really only being organized
by a few places."
There currently are more than 78,000 people on the United Network for OrganSharing's waiting list for kidney transplants from
deceased donors. Last year,there were 10,551 deceased-donor kidney transplants, and 5,963 more from livingdonors.
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U.S.News and World Report
Living Kidney Donation Chains May HelpMore Get Transplants
WEDNESDAY, March 11 (HealthDay News) -- In 2006, one healthy young manstepped forward, willing to give one of his kidneys
to a complete stranger. Twoyears later, 10 people had received new kidneys from that one remarkablealtruistic act.
That's because his donation started the first nonsimultaneous, extendedaltruistic-donor (NEAD) chain. The woman who received
the altruistic donor'skidney had a family member (her husband) who was willing to donate, butcouldn't donate to his wife.
So, he gave his kidney to a young woman whosemother was also willing to donate, but didn't match, and so on, and so on,until
10 successful transplants had occurred. The final donor in the chain isstill waiting for a good match to someone in need of
a kidney.
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Associated Press
Chain results in 10 kidney swaps among strangers
When Matthew Jones decided to donate a kidney to a stranger, the Michigan father of five had no idea he'd be starting a lifesaving,
"pay it forward" chain. His kidney donation to a Phoenix woman in 2007 set off a long-running organ swap that resulted in
10 sick people getting new kidneys over a year. It hasn't ended yet.
This chain of living donors and others like it could help increase the number of kidney transplants, lead to better matches
that will increase survival and even reduce spending on costly, long-term dialysis, says the Ohio doctor behind the effort.
"My dream would be that we eliminate the waiting list because we could turn every altruistic donor into 100 transplants,"
said Dr. Michael Rees, a transplant surgeon at University of Toledo Medical Center.
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Reuters
Donor cascades may make better kidneys available
BOSTON (Reuters) - Donation cascades, in which one altruistic donor gives a kidney to a stranger and friends or family of
the recipient give kidneys in return, work well and raise donation rates, doctors said on Wednesday.
The practice could add up to 3,000 donors to the system, said Dr. Michael Rees, a transplant surgeon from the Alliance for
Paired Donation in Maumee, Ohio, who coordinated the effort.
The system uses people who are willing to donate a kidney to a friend or family member but cannot because they are not a good
tissue match. Instead, they give a kidney to a stranger and, in turn, that stranger's friend or family member makes their
kidney available to another stranger.
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Toledo Blade
Transplant chain's area link aspires to connect with donors
Almost two years after the world's longest chain of kidney transplants started with an altruistic donor from Michigan, a story
about the locally coordinated approach to generate more and better matches is appearing today in the New England Journal of
Medicine.
Dr. Michael Rees, a transplant surgeon at the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio, is
the medical director of Maumee-based Alliance for Paired Donation Inc. He said the article should give critical exposure to
the alliance's method aimed at increasing life-saving kidney transplants.
The alliance's method is based on an altruistic donor who voluntarily gives a kidney to anyone in need, starting a chain reaction
among recipients with willing but incompatible donors who in turn donate to another person.
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The Detroit Free Press
Surgeon has creative way to get more organ donations
Matt Jones had no reason to give up his kidney, but he did -- becoming the first link in a chain that has resulted in 10 transplants so far.
After watching a news program about a man who donated a kidney to a stranger, the Petoskey resident did some research that led him to University of Toledo-based transplant surgeon Dr. Michael Rees, who wanted to create a chain of donors and recipients that could go on indefinitely.
Jones' kidney donation in July 2007 saved a life and led to the publication of an article about the remarkable events in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday.
"My kids think I'm a hero," said Jones, a 30-year-old father of five who traveled to Phoenix to give his kidney to Barb Bunnell. "I don't necessarily think of myself that way; I just did what I felt I needed to do."
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WTVG 13abc
UTMC doctor's altruistic kidney donation chain in New England Journal of Medicine
Dr. Michael Rees, UTMC professor of Urology and director of the Alliance for Paired Donation is the author of an article in the March 11 New England Journal of Medicine about the chains of altruistic kidney donations he helped start.
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Boston.com
Kidney transplant chain broadens donations
It began in 2006 with one Michigan man's decision to donate his kidney to anyone who needed a transplant. That gift led to a total of 10 transplants over eight months through two paired-donation registries coordinating operations in six hospitals in five states.
The chain of transplants was orchestrated using computer software originally devised by Harvard Business School economists and Boston transplant experts involved in the New England Program for Kidney Exchange, as this Globe story explains. But there are some important differences between the New England program and the national one described in tomorrow's New England Journal of Medicine in an article whose authors include economists from Harvard and Boston College. New England donations must happen at the same time, but the chain described in the Journal article did not.
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The Arizona Republic
Relatives of kidney recipients inspired to give to others
Organ-donation surgeries have become both miraculous and mundane.But in July 2007, when doctors in Phoenix took a kidney from one patient and placed it in another, it was a groundbreaking procedure. That surgery, the first link in a kidney chain, is becoming a national model.
It began when Matt, from Michigan, donated a kidney to Barb Bunnell in Phoenix. A week later, Barb's husband, Ron, flew to Toledo, Ohio, and donated a kidney to Angela, who had been on dialysis for 12 years.
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MedPage Today
Altruistic Donor Sparks Longest Kidney Chain
TOLEDO, Ohio, March 11 -- One altruistic donor has sparked the longest paired-donor kidney transplantation chain to date, totaling 10 organ transplants and climbing, researchers here said.
The chain, which started in July 2007, spanned eight months, six transplantation centers, and five states. It has given weight to the practice of nonsimultaneous, extended, altruistic donor (NEAD) chains, according to Michael A. Rees, M.D., of Toledo Medical Center, and colleagues.
They reported the results in the March 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Science Daily
New Computer Models Successfully Link Donors And Kidney Transplant Patients
New computer models can now link strangers in a life-saving chain of kidney transplants, promising to increase the number of transplants and overcome obstacles posed by logistics or donors who renege, a team of researchers report in the current edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Designed to optimize the "matching market" principles involved in kidney transplantation, donor registry software programs sift through thousands of pairs of recipients and their living donors, analyze participant characteristics, then construct an optimal chain of transplant pairs, report the co-authors, many of whom helped pioneer the creation of donor chains.
For the approximately 70,000 U.S. patients in need of a kidney transplant, the data-driven approach to transplantation pairings should shrink the rolls of patients on waiting lists.
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