Public Education - Living Kidney Donation and Transplantation

Public Education - Living Kidney Donation and Transplantation

We believe living kidney donation has the power to eliminate the shortage of kidneys needed for transplants. It’s one of the reasons we have released new educational resources to make living donation an easier topic of conversation for children, families, potential donors and patients needing a kidney transplant. As an organization that routinely works with the Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation (OTDT) community to improve national system performance, we have partnered with experts from around the world to provide the following resources to people in Canada. 

Resources for potential living donors and transplant candidates, including My Transplant Coach, are available in our comprehensive resource centre.

Project background

As a foundation for the development of a Living Kidney Donor Registration Portal, a patient and donor education resource centre has been created on blood.ca/livingdonation 

This is just the beginning of Canadian Blood Services’ journey to create inclusive and accessible resources for all those in Canada in need of a transplant or looking for ways to give. These online resources are for potential donors, transplant candidates, and anyone with an interest in organ and tissue donation  

First launched in September 2021, this centre will continue to grow and add more resources and tools in a variety of formats and multiple languages. A comprehensive outreach plan is also in development. 

In early 2022, My Paired Donation Coach Canada was added and in Summer 2022, scripts for both My Transplant Coach Canada and My Paired Donation Coach Canada were translated into 11 additional languages to create versions with subtitles that make this resource accessible to more Canadians. 

Learning resources

My Transplant Coach Canada and My Paired Donation Coach Canada - Being diagnosed with kidney failure can be scary and overwhelming for some patients. They may need help to choose the treatment option that’s best for them. Dr. Waterman and her team have also developed an award-winning video-based decision aid for patients.

• My Transplant Coach Canada  helps patients understand what transplant treatment options are available, so they can make informed decisions. We worked with Dr. Waterman to develop a Canadian version of this tool called My Transplant Coach Canada, a series of animated videos.
• My Paired Donation Coach Canada is a sequel designed to help people learn specifically about the national Kidney Paired Donation program and how it may help some patients receive a kidney transplant. It’s aimed at patients, their friends and family, and all potential donors.
• Coming soon - subtitles to these modules in 11 additional languages

The Living Donation Storytelling Project is a one-of-a-kind digital library of video stories, recorded by real people, sharing their living donation and kidney transplant experiences. It was developed by Dr. Amy Waterman, a nephrology professor now at Houston Methodist, and her team at the Transplant Research and Education Centre. Canadian Blood Services worked with Dr. Waterman and her team to develop a version tailored to Canadians.

Sharing one’s unique story of living donation can be empowering for the storyteller as well as inspiring for viewers. It helps increase awareness of the importance of living donation as well as understanding of the donation and transplant process. The storytellers are diverse in terms of age, life experience, where they live and ethnic background.

Living Kidney Donation and Kidney Paired Donation : Brochures in  multiple languages

In order to make this important information accessible to as many people as possible, Canadian Blood Services also offers brochures about living kidney donation in 11 different languages. These brochures provide essential information for anyone considering living donation, and they are all available to view or download in our comprehensive resource centre.

These new resources are essential because being informed is a vital step in the journey to becoming a living kidney donor. Medical, legal, ethics and clinical experts, as well as patients from across Canada, have expressed the need for a national website ― a place where anyone can find the latest information and take the first steps toward becoming a living kidney donor.