National Living Kidney Donor Registry to Be Launched in US

The first national living donor registry for kidneys is soon to be launched in the United States by Donate Life America who, in partnership with the Fresenius Medical Care Foundation, plan to have it up and running in 2020.

"Many of us think there is an opportunity to grow living donation here, although honestly, I think that opportunity is bigger in places like Canada where there is a national healthcare system and you know that someone who is going to donate a kidney will get whatever care they need," nephrologist Peter Reese, MD, told Medscape Medical News.

"But there has never been a national campaign to promote living donation the way you see for blood drives, for example, so maybe this living donor registry is a way to step into this gap and say, 'Let's give people a way to express their interest without having to go to a particular transplant center to do it,'" suggested Reese, of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.