VideoDonor and Organ Donation Registration We often think of social media as a way to connect with eagues, but fresh

investigations show that social media n helping others. A new study suggest that social media ol for tackling a variety of problems related to public ation and education are essential. family, friends and coll can also facilitate us i might be an effective to health in which communic

Dagenham, England, September 24, 2013 -- Despite countless media campaigns, orga n donation rates in the United States and UK have remained relatively static whi le need has risen dramatically. New efforts to increase organ donation through p ublic education are necessary to address the waiting list of over 100,000 patien ts. In 2003, DHHS launched the "Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative" to increa se donation in the nation's largest hospitals by implementing widespread use of best practices, and in 2005 transplant centers joined the Collaborative with the goal of also increasing the number of organs recovered per donor. The US Depart ment of Transplantation has offered a series of grant programs to identify and r eplicate successful initiatives aimed at improving donation rates, and recent pr ograms have targeted subgroups that have been particularly difficult to reach, s uch as minorities and the young. Unfortunately, despite all such efforts, organ donation has increased only slightly in recent years while demand has grown dram atically, leading to long waiting times and high waitlist mortality rates. While some have considered a national switch to an "opt-out" system as a potential so lution, recent evidence suggests that such a switch would be unlikely to improve donation rates. Here we describe a novel approach in which a public health awar eness campaign designed to increase organ donation was centered around the use o f a social media application, VideoDonor. Launched in July 2013, Videodonor is the first online video sharing site in the world that is specifically aimed towards increasing Organ Donations with approxi mately 857 active users worldwide. EDean Jonesach Videodonor member controls a c hannel that allows them to describe to upload a variety of inspirational, spotli ght, educational, comedy and music videos. VideoDonor has just launch its iOS app which allows organ donors to upload and s hare their stories through video using an iphone or ipad. The launch of the app is a significant breakthrough for the non-for profit initi ative as it is hoped this will help reach those most in need. Johns Hopkins University researchers posted results in the American Journal of T ransplantation that show the huge potential for social media as a public health tool. "It's the power of social networking as a source for public good," said study le ader Dr. Andrew Cameron, a transplant surgeon and Johns Hopkins University assoc iate professor of surgery. Contact: Dean Jones VideoDonor Burdetts Road, Dagenham, Essex, RM9 0-798-425-1660 deantyronejones@hotmail.com http://www.videodonor.com