On August 4, 2024, the National Kidney Registry (NKR) held a successful in-person microsite training event at ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville, North Carolina.
The event was designed to educate individuals seeking a living kidney donor transplant and their families about the NKR’s microsite program and other resources available to help kidney patients in their donor search.
The microsite program provides free websites and coaching to transplant patients seeking a living donor to increase their chances of achieving a living donor transplant. Donor search coaches can help answer questions about the donor search and transplant processes, assist patients with their microsite, help them access available resources, and work with patients to develop strategies for finding a living donor.
A total of 15 ECU transplant center team members, 54 kidney patients, and 83 “champions”—friends or family members advocating for the patient and assisting with the donor search—attended the event. Ten new microsites were created as a result of the event, and six people at the event expressed interest in becoming kidney donors.
“One thing that resonated with me was the passion that was apparent among the attendees,” said Jenna Horvath, MSN, RN, Manager of Transplant Services and a Certified Clinical Transplant Coordinator at ECU. “Becoming a living donor is one of the most profound ways to help another human being. We need to continue spreading the word and educating our patients about how powerful living donation can be.”
“When you are in need of a kidney transplant, launching a search for a living kidney donor can be overwhelming,” said EJ Tamez, the NKR’s Director of Patient Coaching and a living kidney donor. “The NKR’s microsite program is an invaluable resource that helps patients tell their stories and spread the word about their need for a living donor, all at no cost. We are dedicated to spreading the word about the microsite program and our expert coaches to help everyone who needs a transplant find a living donor.”
The microsite program is offered at 59 NKR Member Centers nationwide. Microsites are available in both English and Spanish and microsite patients are supported by eight professional donor search coaches who are either transplant recipients or personally led a successful living donor search campaign for a friend or family member.
Since its inception in 2019, the microsite program has helped more than 4,000 kidney patients create a personal microsite and has achieved more than 636 living donor transplants for microsite patients.
About FindAKidney.org
Living kidney donor transplants last longer than deceased donor transplants, yet of the 18,000 annual kidney transplants, only 6,000 are from living donors. FindAKidney.org aims to end that imbalance by giving kidney patients the tools and information they need to find a living donor.
About the National Kidney Registry
The National Kidney Registry (www.kidneyregistry.org) is an organization whose mission is to save and improve the lives of people facing kidney failure by increasing the quality, speed, and number of living donor transplants while protecting all living donors.