Today, the National Kidney Registry announced that its Twitter following broke through the 50,000 level. With over 80,000 patients waiting for a kidney transplant, an ever increasing number are educating themselves about kidney transplant “swaps” via the National Kidney Registry’s tweets.
“The magnitude of our following on Twitter is allowing us to educate many more people about our life-saving kidney swap program, while increasing awareness in the general community,” said Joe Sinacore, Counselor and Social Media Director at the National Kidney Registry. “I am humbled and amazed by the rapidly growing base of support we are receiving from social media such as Twitter.”
“While on dialysis, I met many patients that were not aware that ‘swapping’ donors was even possible,” said Gary LeBlanc, a dialysis patient who received a kidney transplant several months ago in a swap organized by the National Kidney Registry. “They thought that their only option, other than a direct donor match, was to be placed on the deceased donor list and wait years to get transplanted. Twitter and other social media sites will help educate patients and direct them to National Kidney Registry member centers to help get enrolled in the National Kidney Registry program.” Gary’s wife wanted to donate but was incompatible, so his transplant center entered him and his wife in the National Kidney Registry and within 90 days a match was found.
To date, the National Kidney Registry has facilitated 240 transplants and is working with the majority of the top 20 transplant centers in the United States.
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