DATE: February 23, 2022

Washington, DC (February 23, 2022) – The Kidney Transplant Collaborative (KTC) today announced its inaugural grant awardees who will receive a total of $6 million to help increase kidney transplants and reduce barriers among patients and donors.

Following a highly competitive selection process that elicited more than 70 letters of intent from organizations across the country, five projects were selected by a panel made up of transplant surgeons, transplant recipients and policy experts to receive funding from the KTC.

The panel considered a variety of factors, including diversity of approach, feasibility, innovation and potential to increase kidney transplants in a 24-month period.

“The grant submissions we received reflect the diverse and complex challenges that kidney transplant patients and donors face today,” noted Stephan Pastan, MD, professor of medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine, medical director of the kidney and pancreas transplant program at the Emory Transplant Center and member of the KTC expert advisory panel. “We’re encouraged to see so many organizations working to improve outcomes and implement solutions, and we’re proud to play a role in helping these innovative ideas come to fruition.”

1. Pulsatile Perfusion of Kidneys from Procurement to Delivery at Accepting Centers – Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, Inc. – testing the use of perfusion machines versus ice when transporting kidneys to increase viability and transplant center acceptance rates.

2. Using Machine Learning Predictions to Improve Utilization and Reduce Discards in Deceased Donor Organ Allocation – Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology – applying an algorithm to improve transplant matching and reduce discard rates.

3. Kidney Transplant in Rapid Organ Recovery from Donation after Uncontrolled Circulatory Death Occurs – HonorBridge – developing a system for procurement and tracking kidney donation outcomes.

4. Using Shared Decision Making to Improve Kidney Transplant – Columbia University, Cleveland Clinic, and the National Kidney Foundation – encouraging greater communication between patients and providers in order for transplant recipients to have more of a voice and choice in medical decisions regarding transplantation.

5. Deceased Donor Kidney Chains – Cambridge85 LLC – aiming to ensure ten percent of all authorized kidneys are used to begin deceased donor kidney chains.

“The five projects we selected have great potential to increase kidney transplants and reduce patient and donor barriers over the next two years. Their outcomes and the lessons we’ll learn along the way are critical to advancing the Kidney Transplant Collaborative’s mission and helping individuals impacted by kidney disease,” said Michael Rees, MD, PhD, CEO of Rejuvenate Kidney Transplant Solutions, CEO of the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation (APKD) and professor/surgical Director of Renal Transplantation at the University of Toledo Medical Center, who also serves on the KTC’s expert advisory panel.

Grant awardees will report outcomes every six months over a two-year period.

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The Kidney Transplant Collaborative (KTC) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing kidney transplants and decreasing financial obstacles and other problems kidney patients, donors and their families experience with the kidney transplant process. For more details, visit the KTC website at www.kidneytransplantcollaborative.com.