‘An honest compassion’

Amy Waterman, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, is tackling a vexing health problem: There are not enough kidneys for transplants, but patients with kidney failure who choose transplants over dialysis have longer, healthier lives.

Researchers study reimbursing living organ donors for out-of-pocket expenses

More than 80,000 people in the U.S. are on waiting lists for organ transplants. Some will have to wait for the death of a matching donor, but more and more people are receiving organs from living donors. In an effort to close the gap between organ supply and demand, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, the University of Michigan and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons are studying ways to reimburse living donors for some of their out-of-pocket expenses when they choose to donate an organ.

Researchers study reimbursing living organ donors for out-of-pocket expenses

More than 80,000 people in the United States are on waiting lists for organ transplants. Some will have to wait for the death of a matching donor, but more and more people are receiving organs from living donors. In an effort to close the gap between organ supply and demand, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, the University of Michigan and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons are studying ways to reimburse living donors for some of their out-of-pocket expenses when they choose to donate an organ.

Unused kidneys

Kidney recipient Barry Hammond (left) and his brother, kidney donor Brian.More than 50,000 people in the United States are waiting for kidney transplants. Most are waiting for someone who wants to be an organ donor to die, but each year only 9,000 people on the transplant waiting list get a kidney from someone who has died, while 16,500 on the list die. Transplants from living donors have the greatest chance of working for a long time and can happen quickly, often within a year. A living kidney donor may be a family member or friend between the ages of 18 and 65. They must be healthy and have a blood type that is compatible with the recipient’s blood type. But researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, have discovered something surprising. Many interested kidney donors are not taken up on their offers to donate because the recipients are afraid donors will be harmed. As a result, many potential donor kidneys go unused.