EXPERIMENTAL AND CLINICAL TRANSPLANTATION

Cell transplant, tissue transplant, and solid-organ transplant provide the best therapeutic options for adult and pediatric patients presenting with end-stage organ failure.¹² Unfortunately, there is a gap between the demand for organs (patients on the wait list) and the supply (donation), leading to organ shortages.^1,2 Different approaches have been proposed to reduce this worldwide issue, such as to increase deceased donation (donation after brain death and after circulatory determination of death), the use of expanded criteria donors, the development of living donor paired exchange registries, the employment of bioartificial organs, and xenotransplantation.^1-5 These previously mentioned strategies can be actively implemented if we count on 3 main pillars. The first pillar is the law; countries need to have clear legislation in place.¹ The second pillar is having educated health care professionals (HCPs) knowledgeable on the legal and ethical aspects of transplantation, with good communication abilities to approach patients and families and with the necessary skills to perform surgeries and posttransplant follow-up visits. Technical skills, communication abilities, and knowledge of surgical and clinical science of transplantation can be obtained through university studies, residency programs, participation in medical societies, and continuing medical education/continuing professional development. The third pillar is the public, as no transplant can take place if the patient or the family is unaware of the benefits of this lifesaving procedure or rejects the possibility of becoming a recipient in case of need or has a negative attitude toward donating organs (their own or those of a family member) because of misinformation or culture and/or religious beliefs.

Regarding the third pillar, transplantation is a complex situation; although laws may be in place and HCPs are trained, without organs from the public (at least for the time being), the procedure cannot take place. Thus, this is the pillar in which education becomes the best tool to increase awareness on organ donation and transplantation worldwide.^1,2,4 Moreover, education programs for elementary and high school students are of extreme value.⁴ Here, we have described the journey toward the idea and set-up of the program “Connecting D.O.T.S.” (Donation and Organ Transplantation for Schools).⁶

How Did We Arrived to Connecting D.O.T.S.: History of the Program

Connecting D.O.T.S.⁶ is the fruit of the work done by a joint working group between The Transplantation Society (TTS) and the Canadian Society of Transplantation (CST) in 2017. The working group included F. Cantarovich and M. Cantarovich (co-chairs), A. Norgate, A. Gangji (CST Education Committee chair), C. Garcia, E. Delpin, H. Arbogast, J. Lerut, J. Schiff (Past CST Education Committee), M. Reinders, S. Young-Kipp, V. Langlois, V. Iachetta, WJ Wall, M. Siebelink, M. Moser, and M. Askar (TTS Education Committee co-chair). Scientific material came from “DonorWise,”⁷ an education program for primary and secondary schools from the Dutch Transplant Foundation and the leadership of M. Siebelink. In 2017, Siebelink and colleagues published a fundamental article supporting the idea of developing an education program on organ donation for children aged 10 to 11 years from Dutch schools.⁸

However, the idea of educating children from several of the members of this group started earlier. To the best of our knowledge, the first paper on organ donation and transplantation for schoolchildren was in 1979 in Argentina. Dr. Felix Cantarovich (at that time, president of the CUCAI, the national Argentinean organ procurement organization) published an article in Billiken, a weekly children’s magazine that ran from 1919 to 2019. Information in the magazine was used by students and teachers and became essential reading to complement what was taught at school.⁹

Another member of the TTS-CST working group was Dr. William Wall, a Canadian transplant surgeon.¹⁰ An informal presentation to high school students in 1998 led to a course in 2001; in 2009, with the Trillium Gift of Life (Ontario’s agency charged with organ and tissue donation), the program was tailored to be taught in science, physics, social studies, arts, English, social science and humanities, and world religious studies.¹⁰

A stepstone that guided the need for the creation of an international school education program was the “First Global Forum on Education on Organ Donation and Transplantation for Schools” organized by TTS, which took place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 2011.⁴ Forty-eight representatives from 16 countries representing transplantation societies, organ procurement organizations, school boards, university faculty, and different religions (Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism) participated. During the working group sessions, delegates from 13 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, the United States, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Israel, and Malaysia) discussed their educational programs for schoolchildren. There were 9 national programs and 4 regional, some of them were available for children aged 6 to 8 years old. At the time of the presentation (2011), there were no compulsory modules in the school curriculum, and 9 of the programs received governmental funding. The most important conclusions related to school education comprised the need for global collaborations involving teachers and the transplant community to help with existing or future programs and the creation of age-appropriate support material that could be organized and disseminated through a central database.⁴

Connecting D.O.T.S.

Connecting D.O.T.S.⁶ is an online platform from TTS dedicated to educating schoolchildren around the globe on donation and organ transplantation. The platform is free, easy to access, and provides accurate information that teachers can use in their classrooms and students can share among friends and family.

Connecting D.O.T.S. is composed of 3 sections (one for teachers, another for students, and one for parents). According to each module, there is a combination of general information that can be downloaded and printed, interactive sessions, videos, and/or assignments. Middle and high school children are the target audience; however, the provided information may be adapted to younger children. The section named DonorFacts was adapted from Donorwise⁷ (from The Dutch Transplantation Foundation), translated from Dutch into English, and reviewed by members of the TTS Education Committee. The interview videos from patients and HCPs were filmed at Joliette High School (Quebec, Canada), and questions were generated by high school students from that school.

Children are the future of our society. Therefore, education of schoolchildren may motivate the discussion on transplant topics with their families and friends. Educational strategies and awareness campaigns may be a step forward to increase the culture of donation around the world, and hopefully increase access to ethical, legal, and transparent transplantation for those in need. The roles of HCPs and transplantation societies are of utmost importance to contribute to the dissemination of school education programs worldwide; consequently, we encourage you to view and share the online material from Connecting D.O.T.S.

Volume: 22 Issue: 10 October 2024 - Supplement - 5

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