Jul 20

Jul 20 Mayo Clinic's paired kidney donation program recognized for innovation

Mayo Clinic's paired kidney donation program was recognized this week by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota for its success in connecting patients in need of a kidney transplant with living donors.

The program was one of 11 "Trailblazers" across the state to be honored by Blue Cross for its innovation and creativity in health care. The series will feature stories on other cutting-edge ideas through September.

Here's how Mayo's paired donation program works, according to Blue Cross:

Mayo specialists find matches for people who wish to donate their kidney to someone they know but with whom they are not compatible. This creates a “donor chain,” where three or more people can be matched with donors, so if a person wants to donate a kidney to a friend but isn’t a match, Mayo will find a match for that donor and a match for the original recipient, too.

The innovative program provides a way for people to receive a living donor kidney transplant rather than being on the deceased-donor waiting list for several years. And the approach has already produced real results: An impressive 75 percent of kidney transplants at Mayo in Rochester now come from living donors — compared to the national average of 30-35 percent.

The full story on Mayo's paired donation program can be found here.