Moving Hearts and Minds: Video Intervention To Improve Organ Donor Registration Intent

There remains a pressing need for organ donation in the United States, with >107,000 individuals currently on waiting lists (1). Deceased donors are an important source of live-saving organ donations, and organ donation enjoys broad public support. However, Health Resources and Services Administration statistics show that, although 90% of individuals favor organ donation, only 60% are actually signed up as organ donors (2). This issue is particularly acute in patients from ethnic and racial minority groups, who form a disproportionate number of patients on the transplant waiting list due to higher rates of conditions that predispose to organ failure, such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and ESKD. Members of minority communities are much less likely to be organ donors due to reasons such as decreased awareness, distrust of the medical community, and fear of racism (3). US residents can sign up to be organ donors online (on websites hosted by their local organ procurement organization or nonprofit organization, such as Donate Life) or, more typically, in person at their local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) (4). The DMV is well suited for this task and allows instant registration and identification of organ donor status on a ubiquitous, government-issued form of identification. …