Software Facilitates Paired Organ Donations

Mar. 7 - KGO (KGO) -- More than 70,000 people nationwide are on the transplant list for a kidney. Many have relatives willing to donate, but they're simply not a match. A San Francisco entrepreneur has come up with a way to match those patients and donors with others to create a swap.

On Valentine's Day, Ryan Ramirez donated a kidney. His mother Gretchen was desperately in need of a transplant, but his kidney actually went to a man he never met, and his mom received one from that man's daughter. It's what's called a paired donation.

David Jacobs, SilverstoneSolutions.com: "It's done anonymously, unless you want to meet afterwards."

David Jacobs created the software that led to their match. He knows all about kidney failure. He discovered he had polycystic kidney disease in his forties and spent more than three years on dialysis waiting for a transplant.

David Jacobs: "The first day I sat on dialysis, I sat next to a guy my age, my disease, I was scared, he told me, 'Hey, no problem, it's just boring.' Fifteen minutes later, he coded out and died."

Jacobs was among the fortunate -- a friend willing to donate was a match. But it's estimated some 6,000 people in need of a kidney have friends or family who want to give, but they're incompatible. Jacobs wanted to do something for them.

David Jacobs: "I know what it feels like to kiss your kids good-bye when you go off to dialysis not knowing if you're coming home that night, and I wanted to make sure that as many people as possible didn't have to have that experience."

The concept of paired donations is not new, but Jacobs approached it in a novel way.

David Jacobs: "I saw this as a software development problem that I would architect an enterprise solution for. With one blood sample, we do what is called a virtual cross match. Instead of actually having to take the blood, and each individual person do the lab work, we test all their immunological data across a whole pool of people."

The result is a much more cost effective way of finding a match, more quickly. He calls it the Silverstone Matchmaker.

Steven Katznelson, M.D., Med. Dir., CPMC Kidney Transplant Program: "It's gonna give a huge option for people who otherwise would have waited many, many years on a transplant waiting list and in fact, possibly not have been transplant candidates by the time they get to the end of the waiting list."

Dr. Steve Katznelson directs the kidney transplant program at the California Pacific Medical Center. He approached Jacobs about the problem of matching paired donations and has worked closely with him on the solution.

Gretchen Freedman is the first to benefit from their work.

Gretchen Freedman: "What a privilege to be a part of this and receive a kidney. I just so appreciate it."

And for David Jacobs, this is what it's all about, making these life changing matches.

David Jacobs: "I hope to license this to hospitals everywhere in the country and if a hospital can't afford it, I hope to just give it to them."

Doctors at CPMC expect to see a 20-percent increase in the number of kidney transplants they do there this year, thanks to David Jacobs and his Silverstone Matchmaker software.

For more information, visit www.silverstonesolutions.com

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