The Gift of Life Donor Program’s (GOL) partnership with The Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance goes back to The Alliance’s founding in 2006 as the HRSA Organ Donation and Transplantation Breakthrough Collaboratives were winding down and remains strong today. For The Alliance’s first six years, Gift of Life Institute, the donor program’s international center for learning and research, handled the new organization’s financial and administrative functions. With continued growth, The Alliance Board of Directors created a separate administrative structure in 2012.
Gift of Life now serves as a Platinum Circle Partner of The Alliance and co-sponsors events, has executives who support The Alliance as leaders, presenters, and mentors, and sends their clinical staff to professional learning events that The Alliance offers.
“The Alliance creates a bridge that brings everyone together to share best practices for the purposes of getting more people transplanted,” says Rick Hasz, MFS, CPTC, president and chief executive officer of Gift of Life (GOL) Donor Program. “There’s no other agenda than that.”
Hasz, who served on the faculty of the National Collaboratives, says the initiative was invested in ensuring there was an infrastructure in place where all the stakeholders in organ donation and transplantation—the hospitals, the transplant centers, and the organ procurement organizations (OPOs) could be in constant communication which led to the creation of The Alliance. He notes that the National Collaboratives were credited with quadrupling the growth rate of organ donation over four years and the key to getting more patients transplanted was having those three estates be in constant communication.
“We appreciate the support of all our partners, both professional and corporate, as we work to ignite bold advancements in organ donation, transplantation, and patient survival through collaboration and engaged learning,” says Karri Hobson Pape, executive director of The Alliance. “The Gift of Life Donor Program has been an integral partner since our inception and Rick Hasz has been instrumental in encouraging his team members to be involved with The Alliance.”
Hasz notes that GOL continues its commitment to growth and innovation which has been a priority throughout the donor program’s more than 50 years of service. “From our staff’s perspective, there’s a wealth of information that The Alliance provides by partnering with experts in the field,” says Hasz. “As organ allocation has broadened, the relationships of OPO team members have moved beyond their local donation service area. Being exposed to different transplant centers and their thoughts, strategies, and challenges helps our team members better understand the broader environment.”
Hasz cites the two national collaborative discussions on NRP (normothermic regional perfusion) that the GOL Institute (the international research and training center of GOL) co-hosted with Alliance in 2023 and 2024 as good examples of the bridges and collaboration that The Alliance creates.
“The Alliance was the perfect place to bring together stakeholders in the emerging technology of NRP,” says Hasz. “We hosted a joint meeting with The Alliance in Philadelphia to bring in stakeholders from across the country. After that first successful event, we were able to broaden that reach through The Alliance to host the 2024 session in association with the ASTS, the AST, and AOPO to bring all the stakeholders together to promulgate best practices.”
The March 2023 National Collaborative Discussion on normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) was attended by 230 organ donation and transplantation leaders and Theresa Daly, vice president of GOL Institute, served on the planning committee. A follow-up collaborative forum on NRP was held in Denver in March 2024.
Gift of Life leadership team members serve on The Alliance executive leadership councils, such as Christine Radolovic, chief clinical officer at GOL, who serves on the National Donation Leadership Council. Gweneth O’Shaughnessy, vice president of hospital services at GOL, serves on the planning committee for the Foundational Perspectives of Organ Donation Course and has served as a mentor. John Edwards, Clinical Operations Administrator for GOL, also serves as a frequent speaker on Alliance programs – focusing on diverse topics such as organ allocation, donation after circulatory death (DCD) and NRP.
“We also send hospital teams and our own teams to many of The Alliance’s learning programs, whether it be the pediatric summit, the upcoming national critical issues forum, or others,” says Hasz, who co-chaired the planning committee for the September 2024 Critical Issues Forum, “Optimizing Performance in the New Now.” “We’re involved either in front of the audience or as part of the audience and trying to learn best practices. We have an expectation with our team to not only to be involved at the local level, but we also want to be involved at the national level to continue our impact and to get more patients transplanted. As an organization that’s committed to growth and innovation, we want to be exposed to everything that’s going on.”
The Alliance is supported by voluntary financial support from professional and corporate partners and the Gift of Life Donor Program is one of 30 Platinum Circle Partners. Professional partners work with the Alliance to advance the organ donation and transplantation field and each other. That support enables The Alliance to continue powering synergy, sparking innovation, and turning discoveries into solutions for an equipped, agile, and empowered community.
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