News & Events: Organ Donation

Joyce A. Trompeta, Ph.D., PNP, Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs / Japan-United States Educational Commission. Dr. Trompeta will examine the organ donation and transplantation attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge among a population key to Japan's future - Japanese university students, as well as faculty and healthcare providers who often are the ones who promote and request organ donation consent. Her research will be conducted at Kumamoto University, [...]

Nancy Ascher, M.D., Ph.D., the world-renowned organ transplant surgeon and a former Chair of the UCSF Department of Surgery, has also been invited to serve on the WHO Task Force on Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues, an international multidisciplinary task force of 31 experts spanning the fields of medicine, surgery, ethics, law, patients' rights, public administration and health systems. The task force is charged with establishing the fundamentals of ethical transplantation, providing guidance to health ministries and governments pertaining to legislation, registries, [...]

Members of the UCSF Transplant Surgery Program participated in National Donate Life Blue & Green Day, wearing the the commemorative blue and green colors, and showing their solidarity with the cause. During this day,the public is encouraged to wear blue and green, hold events and fundraisers, and partner with local restaurants, malls, media, and community organizations in an effort to promote the success of organ, eye and tissue transplantation and the need for registered donors.According to Donate Life America,  nearly 124,000 men, women and children are awaiting organ transplants in the [...]

"Neither man had a donor who was a match. But each had a family member willing to donate a kidney to a stranger, allowing them all to be part of chain which would, in turn, give Baty and Cienfuegos kidneys from other strangers. With 17 participating hospitals in 11 states, the chain consisted of 30 people willing to give up their kidney, matched with 30 more who needed one to survive. UCSF surgeons Andrew Posselt, M.D., Ph.D. and Ryutaro Hirose, M.D., performed the transplants on Baty and Cienfuegos - just two of the 300 or so kidney transplants performed at UCSF every year."

Nancy Ascher, MD, PhD on NPR's Forum with Michael Krasny Each day in the U.S., 19 people die waiting for donated organs. To help increase supply, some health experts and economists want to legalize the market for human organs. We take up the issue with a panel of experts.

UCSF News reports on the the difficult choices that patients, families and doctors face because of the shortage of donated organs for transplantation. A difficult conundrum for the nation's transplant patients was aired September 22 when the news program California Connected featured UCSF's Liver Transplant Program. The story, produced by Jon Dann for public television stations KQED and KCET, highlights the difficult choices that patients, families and doctors face because of the shortage of donated organs for transplantation. Reporter Bob Jimenez pointed out that this shortage in one [...]