National Marrow Donor Program Publishes New Transplant Center Directory

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)has published the 2001-2002 Transplant Center Access Directory—a freeresource for all patients who are undergoing a blood stem cell transplant and donot have a matching donor in their family.

"Patients faced with the option of unrelated blood stemcell transplantation are dealing with one of the most complex medical proceduresin modern medicine," said Pamela Weisdorf, director of the NMDP’s Officeof Patient Advocacy. "This directory contains the information patients andtheir families need to choose an NMDP Transplant Center to receive their medicaltreatment."

The NMDP maintains a centrally organized computer registry ofmore than 4 million volunteers who are willing to be stem cell donors forpatients unrelated to them.

Useful Information

To receive a transplant from an NMDP donor, patients must betreated at one of the transplant centers in the NMDP Network. The TransplantCenter Access Directory contains useful information about every NMDP TransplantCenter, including contact information for the medical director, coordinator,patient advocate, and financial worker; a list of the center’s attendingphysicians; donor match criteria; type of facility (adult, pediatric, or both);access criteria and how to arrange consultations; research interests; financialcriteria (deposits required) and whether assistance is provided; cost data forservices; transplant history (NMDP-facilitated and all other activity, ie,autologous, related allogeneic, etc); center-specific survival (risk-adjustedpercentage); and raw survival data, categorized by age and disease.

The Transplant Center Access Directory also provides a list,with phone number, of all NMDP International Transplant Centers, as well asinformation on a variety of subjects related to transplants that may helppatients, family members, and medical professionals. These topics include stepsin choosing a transplant center and changing a transplant center, how tounderstand individual transplant center information, how to understand survivalstatistics, and how to find out about transplant insurance coverage.

To request a free copy of the Transplant Center AccessDirectory, call the NMDP’s Office of Patient Advocacy toll free at1-888-999-6743. The entire directory can also be found on-line at www.marrow.org.