State Registry to Track Organ Donation

A state registry for organ, tissue and eye donation will be established in Alabama next year, providing an “extra level” of assurance that people’s desires to donate will be honored, according to the director of the Alabama Organ Center (AOC).

November 10, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A state registry for organ, tissue and eye donation will be established in Alabama next year, providing an “extra level” of assurance that people’s desires to donate will be honored, according to the director of the Alabama Organ Center (AOC).

Chuck Patrick, who heads the agency with the federal mission of promoting and facilitating organ and tissue donation in Alabama, said, “Signing up for donation on your driver’s license, while a wonderful way of indicating your desire to donate, leaves some gaps which will be addressed thorough a statewide registry.”

“A state registry of donors will make names readily accessible only to AOC staff,” he said. In addition, people registering will have an option of authorizing the AOC to send letters to designated family and friends confirming the person’s desire to donate.

The state registry will be set up and promoted as part of a recent federal. The project will also ways to increase intent-to-donate rates among African Americans in rural Alabama. The $234,725 grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services is part of a nationwide effort to find new ways to address the growing gap between supply and demand for donated organs and tissue.

The AOC and the UAB School of Public Health are recipients of the grant. Health behavior specialist Mark B. Dignan, Ph.D., will direct the project with Patrick.

The rural Alabama project will make use of local members of the clergy and “church health advocates” in some counties. Clergy already deliver health messages to their communities through UAB programs such as the Deep South Network for Cancer Control. The new project will provide educational materials about organ donation to African Americans and churches in addition to utilization of the advocates. The advocates will be trained to provide information about donation in the context of an overall wellness message. The statewide donor registry will be established to assist in documentation of intent to donate, coupled with family notification.

“The question is whether attitudes of mistrust can be overcome and whether levels of knowledge about organ donation can be increased through these interventions,” Dignan said.

For more information on organ donation, visit www.alabamaorgancenter.org, the web page of the Alabama Organ Center or www.organdonor.gov, the web page of the National Organ and Tissue Donation Initiative.