A heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated in Living Donation Week 2020! From our incredible speakers and moderators, to our volunteers and viewers, to our spectacular team, everyone who joined us played an essential role in bringing together the living donation community and engaging in on-going conversations about live donor transplantation.

A special shout out to our patient partners for their willingness to share their stories and experiences with honesty and vulnerability. Your stories bring hope and inspiration to those who are currently waiting for life-saving transplants, either for themselves or for their loved ones. Thank you for continuing to advocate for living organ donation - Living Donation Week wouldn’t have been the same without you!

 

As we settle into the colder months, let's keep the conversation going. Whether that means checking in with one another over social media or Zoom, re-visiting and sharing the events of Living Donation Week 2020 or completing our Feedback Survey, there's lots you can do to continue supporting one another and living organ donation.  

See you next month!

The Centre Team

 

Our In Conversation series took over the week's afternoons with our moderators (most of them patient partners) sitting down with our kidney and liver transplant teams, living donors and recipients, and caregivers. Finally, Wednesday afternoon's Celebration Event gave everyone an opportunity to thank living donors and living donor transplant teams across Canada for their life-saving efforts. It was a busy week - and we can't wait to do it again next year!     

 

 

All sessions from Living Donation Week are eligible for self-learning/self-study activity credits in accordance with requirements of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Section 2) and the College of Family Physicians of Canada (non-certified). Head to our YouTube Channel for access to all webinars from Living Donation Week 2020.

 

 

 

 

Hala Muaddi's first prize project pitched data collection to address disparities in access to liver transplant based on socioeconomic status (SES). Currently, there is no available data on whether patients with different SES who require transplant are served equally throughout Ontario. Gathering this data will help identify underserved patient populations and guide the development of future interventions and strategies to overcome inequalities in transplant access in Ontario. Results of this study will impact clinicians, researches, patients living in Ontario and beyond. With this data, clinicians can begin to address disparities and ensure equitable living donor liver transplant access and outcomes. 

 

Tied for second place, Marzan Hamid pitched Transplant Talk, a mobile application that will address the low rates of living donor transplantation in marginalized communities. The app will connect individuals with similar circumstances and backgrounds, and provide them with a platform to discuss donation and access peer-to-peer support. Transplant Talk aims to build a network of donors, patients, caregivers, families and everyone in between to enable open, culturally appropriate conversations. Transplant Talk will be the first of its kind, and will pave the way for open dialogue and thought-exchange between people from all walks of life, ultimately improving the way people think about transplant and living organ donation.

 

Also in second, the MOT Student Research Training Program (Emily Nguyen, Kateryna Maksyutynska, Lakindu Somaweera, Jonathan Wang, Cavizshajan Skanthan, Rachel Chen) for the Kidney Transplant Learning Project, a project to improve information retention for transplant patients in the pre-transplant process. The project will adapt existing patient education material to interactive formats, such as animated videos, quizzes and summary graphs for patients to access at home. By facilitating self-directed learning that can be adjusted based on patient needs and learning styles, the Kidney Transplant Learning Project will improve current knowledge dissemination practices in the transplant program improving outcomes for both recipients and donors.  

 

Watch It Again: Pitch Competition  

Living Donation Week might be over, but we still have lots of events coming up, as well as our ongoing education sessions. 

Stay up to date with the Centre's events, transplant research and news, as well as inspiring stories of living donation by following us on social media. 

The Centre for Living Organ Donation at UHN

Toronto General Hospital

585 University Ave., 11PMB 100, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2N2 Canada

416-340-5400

Subscribe to this mailing list

Unsubscribe from this mailing list