Grants
Overview & Goals
2021 – 2023
Kidney transplantation is the optimal treatment for patients with end-stage renal disease, usually increasing quality of life and survival. With very few new ESRD patients receiving a pre-emptive kidney transplant and with only a fraction ultimately receiving transplants, inventive new strategies to increase kidney donations and transplants are not only essential—but critical—to the survival of nearly 100,000 patients currently on the kidney transplant waitlist.
KTC since its inception has been committed to developing policy solutions and funding innovative and groundbreaking programs that can demonstrate and achieve a significant increase in kidney transplants.
In 2021, KTC developed a comprehensive grants program, inviting and encouraging over 500 organ procurement organizations, transplant centers, national kidney and transplant stakeholder groups, dialysis providers and organizations dedicated to increasing kidney transplants to submit innovative and groundbreaking ideas and projects for grant funding consideration.
Over 70 letters of intent were received and reviewed by KTC’s Expert Advisory Panel, comprised of medical experts, a kidney transplant recipient and an altruistic living kidney donor with technical, clinical, and quality expertise in the kidney transplant community. In the first phase of KTC’s grants program, the Expert Advisory Panel considered multiple factors when determining recipients, including diversity of approach, feasibility, innovation, and the potential to impactfully increase kidney transplants in a 24-month period.
KTC Grant Awardees
The competitive selection process resulted in five organizations receiving a total of $3 million in grants to further their research and development of methods to increase kidney donation.
Pulsatile Perfusion of Kidneys from Procurement to Delivery at Accepting Centers
Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, Inc.
Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, Inc. is an organ procurement organization that serves 120 counties throughout Kentucky, Southern Indiana, and Western Virginia, with its goal being to reduce kidney discards. Funding from the KTC grant will be used to test and practice pulsatile perfusion from the point of kidney recovery to reception. This process will increase the viability of the kidney and the transplant acceptance center rates.
Using Machine Learning Predictions to Improve Utilization and Reduce Discards in Deceased Donor Organ Allocation
Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
As of October 2021, more than 90,000 patients are on the kidney waiting list, with around 20% of kidneys received being discarded. Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are working to reduce both statistics through funding granted by KTC that will allow these organizations to develop algorithms that will increase and improve transplant matching, simultaneously reducing discard rates.
Kidney Transplant in Rapid Organ Recovery from Donation after Uncontrolled Circulatory Death Occurs
HonorBridge
HonorBridge is an organ procurement organization (OPO) that serves 7.2 million people in 77 counties of North Carolina and Virginia. It includes over 100 hospitals and four transplant centers. With KTC funding, HonorBridge is working to increase deceased donor kidneys by 10% through developing a system for procurement. This system will include tracking donation outcomes such as kidneys transplanted and discarded rates to expand the kidney donor pool.
Using Shared Decision Making to Improve Kidney Transplant
Columbia University, Cleveland Clinic and the National Kidney Foundation
Through KTC funding, Columbia University, Cleveland Clinic, and the National Kidney Foundation can continue their research to increase kidney transplantation and lower discard of deceased donor kidney rates. The strategy to achieve these goals includes hosting focus groups, which will, in turn, provide relevant information that can be utilized in creating educational tools that will be shared between patients and healthcare providers when deciding whether to be a kidney donor.
Deceased Donor Kidney Chains
Cambridge85 LLC
Cambridge85 LLC is a performance improvement organization dedicated to innovating organ donation and transplantation, with the goal of increasing kidney transplants by 37%. This will be completed by demonstrating the impact deceased donor-initiated chains can have on the number of individuals transplanted. These chains will begin with a deceased donor in partnership with the US Military, expanding the impact a donation has and encouraging others to become a donor.
It is essential that the kidney transplant community continue to aggressively explore innovative new kidney transplant methods, strategies and programs that can be implemented at the state, regional and federal level to significantly increase kidney donation and transplantation.
