The theme of this year’s 27^th annual meeting of the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) was Focus on the Future.

The Tissue Council Meeting headed up the agenda on day one. The Tissue Council membership is made up of representatives from many different OPOs and tissue banks across the country.  The highlight of the council meeting was a panel discussion held between attendees and senior representatives from the major tissue processors in the US.  The panelists discussed the changing landscape of tissue banking and what they foresee the course of tissue transplantation will be in the future, including cells/live cell grafts as the future of tissue donation. 

Several presentations and discussions were held on first person consent/donor designation and state-based donor registries.  Across the country OPOs are doing innovative things to increase public awareness of their state registries and increasing the numbers of people registered as organ, tissue and eye donors.  It was pointed out that when a donor family knows that their loved one wished to be a donor, it makes the donation process much easier.  Thus, OPOs are encouraging registered donors to share their wishes with their families.

One of the highlights of the meeting was the ceremony of the Crystal Heart Award, which is presented to a donor family dedicated to donation and transplantation.  This year the award was presented to Jill Stephenson.  Her son, Cpl. Ben Kopp, was killed in action while serving in Afghanistan.  Ben’s mother was approached about organ donation.  While facing the loss of her only child, she made the courageous decision to say yes.  Read more about this amazing story in the Washington Post here. “It helps my sorrow; it eases my pain. It really does,” Jill told the Post of knowing that Ben’s donation helped others. “I know that Ben wanted to help save lives . . . and it really prolongs Ben’s life and honors his memory so much and honors me in that we could save other lives.”

Thanks to all those who participated this year.  After attending, I am sure that the future of donation is bright. 

-          Heather Luders, Donor Field Services Representative

However, new research using stem cells to grow new lungs or lung tissue from the University of Texas Medical Branch may give hope to potential lung transplant recipients. Read more about the new research being tested on mice here.

A short tour of the leading laboratory where AlloSource develops new life-saving and life-enhancing tissue allografts

Discover the laboratory where AlloSource ensures the safety of its allografts

Take a look inside AlloSources cutting-edge stem cell laboratory, where the company is developing new types of allografts that promote tissue regeneration

What do you think about the Chinese approach to regenerative medicine? What, if any, are the implications for the US?

For a third consecutive year, Donate Life was among the Rose Parade float award winners. This year’s “New Life Rises” entry won the prestigious Theme Trophy for Excellence in Presenting the Parade Theme, “A Cut Above The Rest.”

Additionally, ABC conducted a text-message poll allowing their millions of viewers to select their favorite float. The winner: Donate Life!

The following byline from AlloSource has appeared in hundreds of media outlets around the country

Amidst the constantly changing world of medicine, innovative research from some of the world’s leading surgeons is finding new ways to use donated human tissue to treat a host of medical conditions.

Registered donors and their families donate this allograft tissue in the same way organs are donated. It is used in many life-saving and enhancing medical procedures already, with numerous new opportunities on the horizon.

“Many people don’t realize it, but donated human tissue is used in many surgical applications, saving peoples’ lives and limbs daily,” says Dr. Ross Wilkins from the Denver Clinic for Extremities at Risk, a highly specialized group in the management of conditions and diseases that place people at risk of losing a limb. “Allograft tissue is used to replace damaged structures in the body, from the ligaments and tendons of major league sports players, bones and joints of military men and women, to the musculoskeletal structures, teeth, skin and spinal components of average citizens.”

AlloSource, one of the nation’s largest accredited tissue processing facilities, recently provided tissue to a man severely injured on a construction site. After a crane on the site hit a power line, Manuel Salazar was struck by 150,000 volts and was severely burned and lost both arms and both legs. First, allograft skin was used to cover his severe burns, then allograft bone and tissue were used to help build him a new arm and shoulder, so he could be successfully be fitted for a prosthetic arm and once again complete everyday tasks such as brushing his teeth and scratching his head.

“Donated human tissue has completely changed my life,” says Salazar. “Although I was forever changed by my accident, the new possibilities that allograft tissue have provided for me have restored my hope.”

On New Years Day Salazar will be sponsored by AlloSource to appear in the 2010 Rose Parade aboard the Donate Life float entitled New Life Rises. Salazar will join 23 other riders representing millions of people touched by organ and tissue donation, including donor families, living donors, transplant recipients and transplant candidates.

Dr. Wilkins and plastic surgeon Dr. William Brown operated on Salazar and have innovative surgeries for many patients using human allograft tissue for promoted healing, growth or reconstruction.

“The possibilities for the use of human tissue in modern medicine are truly thrilling,” Wilkins says. “Soon, we will know more about the growth biology of the human body, about regenerating bone and tissue and using donor stem cells to re-grow physical structures. We’ll have more of the information we need to achieve long-term success with groundbreaking procedures such as full limb transplantation.”

Currently, physicians of different specialties are working together to solve some of the most difficult issues in limb reconstruction. Surgical teams from the Denver Clinic for Extremities at Risk and Colorado State University Animal Cancer Center have devised a method for live, full joint transplants. Additional work is needed to learn how to safely block rejection.

“As more people learn about these remarkable discoveries and choose to be tissue donors, we will be able to find new ways to maximize those gifts and surgical teams will be able to provide patients with restored function and movement we only dream about today,” says Thomas Cycyota, chief executive officer of AlloSource.

Are these new made up words? If you’re connected to the high communication environment, you know that these are all ways to get and share information with other people. Who would have imagined as little as several years ago that a messaging website called Twitter would have more than 7 million participating members today? It’s been incredible to watch the alternate methods people have found to stay connected with one another.

And on that note, to help AlloSource communicate with its various stakeholders, we bring you our new blog, AllograftPossibilities.org.

We have published the Allograph as an internal newsletter for years, but in this hyper-connected world we’ve decided it’s time to grow its audience and expand its content. We are pleased to share with you – our Organ Procurement Agency and dedicated healthcare professional partners – all of the great things that are happening at AlloSource.

Here surgeons, nurses and consumers will find constantly updated information about allograft tissue and the patients and families it touches. This site will include in the coming months: personal entries from me, videos of patient stories, tours of our facilities and tissue processing, the latest research regarding allograft tissue and more.

The process of tissue donation, recovery, processing and subsequent transplantation is truly one of the miracles in healthcare today. People who can’t walk without pain can be healed. Critically burned patients can use allograft skin to cover their wounds. Chronic pain from neck or lower back issues can be eliminated. Your role in this process is integral to making these possibilities realities.

I hope you enjoy AllograftPossibilities.org. Contact information can be found under the “Who We Are” tab so let us know if you have any suggestions for improvement.

Thanks for all that you do for the donor and donor families as well as the recipients who receive the gift of life.

Tom Cycyota, Chief Executive Officer