Release Date: October 20, 1999 This content is archived.
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The schools of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Health Related Professions and Social Work at the University at Buffalo are collaborating with Upstate New York Transplant Services, Inc. (UNYTS) on a three-year, $810,000 grant to develop ways to increase organ donation in the African-American community.
The grant is part of a $13-million effort funded by the National Organ and Tissue Donation Initiative -- involving 18 organ-procurement organizations across the U.S. -- to increase organ donation across all segments of the population.
Mark Simon, executive director of UNYTS, will be principal investigator on the grant. Judith Tamburlin, UB research assistant professor of clinical laboratory sciences and anatomy and cell biology, will be project director and co-investigator. Other co-investigators will be Edward Kraus of UNYTS and Christopher Rice, UB assistant professor of social work.
The major force behind the grant was Bill Minniefield, a 51-year-old African American who returned to UB a few years ago to finish a bachelor's degree in psychology. He wound up earning a second bachelor's degree with a special major in the health sciences, and in December will complete an individualized-degree program in research in minority health issues. His research project for that program centered on attitudes toward organ donation among African Americans and he arrived at some significant findings. (see accompanying news release).
"This grant arose out of Bill Minniefield's interest in this issue and the project for his bachelor's degree," said Tamburlin. "Without him raising the issue and making us aware of the problem, we wouldn't have applied for the grant." Minniefield will be a consultant on the project, along with Maggie Wright, former assistant dean for minority affairs for the UB medical school.
The UNYTS-UB collaboration in the first year of the grant will be aimed specifically at the African-American community. Statistics compiled by UNYTS show that in Buffalo, 50 percent of patients needing organ transplants are African Americans, while the consent rate for donation from this ethnic group is only 14 percent.
This low donation rate poses problems on two accounts: It limits the number of organs available in general to a population in which the need is great; and it decreases the possibility of obtaining a compatible match. Rejection rates for African Americans are higher when the organ is from a donor of another race.
During years two and three of the grant, the emphasis will be on increasing organ donation in the Western New York Hispanic and Native-American communities, respectively.
The project will aim at educating the two groups most influential to organ donation: the medical community and the African-American family. UB will be responsible primarily for the former, and UNYTS the latter.
Tamburlin said case studies involving organ donation will be incorporated into the medical-student curriculum, in-service training will be provided to medical residents and both groups will develop culturally sensitive approaches to the issue of organ donation through the use of standardized patients.
UNYTS will help develop appropriate education materials and establish a community- education program that will be tested in three community settings -- health-care clinics, churches and community centers -- using two presentation approaches: a trained African-American community educator alone, or teamed with a medical student.
"The project is going to be exciting to implement," said Simon of UNYTS. "It is going to allow us to get out into the minority community and do some one-on-one education. Hopefully, it will change attitudes."
A total of 900 people will be assigned randomly into one of the three intervention groups. Participants will meet with the education team to discuss legal and personal issues regarding organ donation, receive a packet of information with donor cards and be asked to discuss the issue with their families. All participants also will complete a pre-intervention survey to collect demographic information and assess current attitudes toward organ donation. A follow-up interview will be completed two weeks after the presentation to determine how many participants in each group declared their intention to donate and how many had a family discussion of the issue.
The researchers will compare results from each setting and for both presentation approaches to determine which combination is most effective. This educational approach then will be implemented throughout the African-American community at large, and will be modified for use in the Hispanic and Native-American communities.
