University Worksite Organ Donation Promotion Campaign

Dr. Stephenson is a co-investigator on a three-year research effort named The University Worksite Organ Donation Promotion Project. The $1.5 million grant is funded by the Division of Transplantation, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Texas A&M University, along with Rutgers University, will conduct a media campaign and a personal education campaign through June 2004. The goals are (1) to promote the signing of organ donor cards and (2) to encourage individuals to talk to their family members about their choice.

Pam Silvestri of the Dallas-based Southwest Transplant Alliance, an organ procurement organization, is assisting Texas A&M in the campaign.

The results from the mass media and interpersonal campaigns will be contrasted with the media-only campaign condition being conducted at the University of Arizona and the University of Alabama. Penn State and UNC-Charlotte are control communities that are not conducting any campaign, but they will serve as baseline to determine the effect of the campaigns on the other campuses.

Susan Morgan from Rutgers University is the principal investigator. Co-investigators with Dr. Stephenson include Tom Reichert (University of Alabama), Walid Afifi (Penn State), Eusebio Alvaro (University of Arizona), Shawn Long (UNC-Charlotte). For more information, please visit http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~odc/.

See press coverage from a recent meeting of a donor family and a recipient family in this story by the Bryan-College Station Eagle reporter Laura Hensley.

http://www.theeagle.com/region/localregional/092803donor.php

http://www.theeagle.com/brazossunday/092803organdonor.htm