40 Year Old College Freshman

02/27/2024

Best Kidney Match
The Latest Kidney-Matching Technology to Maximize the Impact of Your Donation
Living donor assistance offered by Donor Shield includes access to the latest kidney-matching technology to ensure your kidney goes to the best-matched recipient, which increases the chances of a successful, long-lasting transplant.

When you donate through the National Kidney Registry, you can be sure that your kidney will be matched in a way that maximizes the impact of your donation. This is evidenced by the fact that NKR outcomes are better than the typical living donor transplant outcomes in the United States in spite of much more difficult cases.

The NKR has the ability to find better matches and achieve better transplant outcomes due to the large pool of living donors, a commitment to research, and system development efforts focused on improving the donor-recipient match, primarily driven by the Kidney for Life initiative. Our goal is for NKR-facilitated transplants to last for the patient’s lifetime while allowing for lower immunosuppression.

When you donate a kidney through the National Kidney Registry, we use the latest technology to find the best possible recipient match for your kidney.

02/27/2024

Voucher Donation
Living Donor Assistance to Protect Your Family in the Future
Voucher donation is a type of living donor assistance that allows a donor to donate now to help someone in need of a kidney transplant while providing one or more vouchers that can be activated in the future for a living donor kidney transplant. There are two primary types of vouchers: standard vouchers and family vouchers.

By donating through the National Kidney Registry’s Standard Voucher Program, you can donate according to your schedule while providing a voucher to someone who is in imminent need of a kidney transplant. When the voucher holder is ready for transplant surgery, they can activate the voucher to be prioritized for a living donor kidney through the NKR. Standard voucher donors can also name up to five family members as back-up voucher holders should the initial voucher holder be unable to redeem their voucher.

By donating through the Family Voucher Program, you can donate according to your schedule while providing up to five vouchers for your family members who are not in imminent need of a transplant. Donating through the Family Voucher Program allows donors to help more than one person in need of a transplant—the family members who receive the vouchers and the other patient or patients transplanted in the chain started by the voucher donor.

The National Kidney Registry’s Voucher Program lets you donate a kidney according to your schedule while providing a voucher for your friend or family member...

02/27/2024

Protecting & Supporting Living Kidney and Liver Donors
Thank you for considering becoming a living donor! Donor Shield protections are available to qualifying living kidney donors and living liver donors to make the donation process easier and more convenient.

To learn more about donor support and protections, find participating transplant centers and find out if you qualify, click the corresponding donor type below.

Learn more about kidney or liver donor support and protections, find participating transplant centers, and find out if you qualify to donate.

02/27/2024

Start a Chain
Family voucher donors almost always start chains and are rapidly becoming the predominant form of chain starter donors.

In a chain, a donor will donate to someone in need of a kidney who has someone willing to donate on their behalf but is incompatible or is a poor match. That paired donor will then donate to someone else in need of a kidney who has a donor willing to donate on their behalf and so on and so forth as exemplified in the diagram to the right.

One chain can facilitate anywhere from two to 30 transplants. Historically, donors that started chains were simply Good Samaritan donors, however, with the innovation of the Family Voucher Program, donors that start chains are much more likely to be family voucher donors.

Protections for Donors Who Start A Chain
All donors that start National Kidney Registry chains are prioritized for a living donor transplant in the extremely rare case they ever need a kidney transplant in the future. NKR donors are eligible for the support and protections covered by Donor Shield.
https://www.kidneyregistry.org/for-donors/i-want-to-help-a-stranger-in-need-of-a-kidney/start-a-chain/

https://www.kidneyregistry.org/for-donors/i-want-to-help-a-stranger-in-need-of-a-kidney/start-a-chain/

A kidney donor chain is a way of matching living kidney donors with the best-matched recipients when donor-recipient pairs are incompatible or poorly matched.

02/27/2024

https://www.kidneyregistry.org/for-centers/voucher-program/

Voucher Program
The National Kidney Registry (NKR) Voucher Program allows a living kidney donor to choose the most convenient time frame for their kidney donation surgery and provide one or more vouchers to people who can then be prioritized to receive a living donor kidney through the NKR if/when they need a transplant. Voucher donation, which has been referred to in the medical literature as a paired exchange separated in time, allows donors to overcome chronological incompatibility.

Standard Voucher
The standard voucher is utilized when a family member or friend is in imminent need of a kidney transplant (within a year) and the donor would like to donate sooner rather than later. The person in imminent need will receive a voucher for a living donor kidney, which can be activated at any time. In addition to the voucher holder in imminent need, the donor can also name five family members as back-up voucher holders should the voucher holder in imminent need receive a deceased donor transplant.

Family Voucher
The family voucher is utilized when a donor does not know someone in immediate need of a kidney transplant and wants to help others in need by starting a chain and donating their kidney to a stranger. The Family Voucher Program allows for up to five family members of the donor to receive vouchers that can be activated if one of the family members ever needs a kidney transplant. Once the first voucher is redeemed, all other vouchers related to that donor become void and cannot be redeemed.

Swap Saver
The swap saver is used when there is a problem with a swap (e.g., the paired recipient becomes sick, etc.) and the paired donor decides to proceed with the scheduled surgery to keep the rest of the swap on schedule. The paired recipient is then prioritized for a transplant in a future swap when they are healthy enough to undergo transplant surgery.

Real-Time Swap Failure
A real-time swap failure occurs when there is a problem with a swap and the paired donor donates but the paired recipient does not get a kidney transplant. In these cases, the patient is prioritized for a transplant in a future swap.

The kidney voucher program lets a donor donate on their own schedule and receive one or more vouchers, which they can give others for a future transplant.

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ol·o·gy
a subject of study; a branch of knowledge.

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