NMDP launches Web site to accelerate transplant decision-making process

New Online Resource Offers Payors Tools to Help Save Lives

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) has launched a new online resource for payors that provides critical information about the search and procurement of unrelated donors and umbilical cord blood units. The Web site, www.nmdp.org/payor, offers guidelines to help payors make appropriate and timely decisions about unrelated marrow or cord blood transplants.

For patients with leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases, treatment with a marrow or cord blood transplant could be the best and only hope for a cure. However, outcomes of transplantation depend on timing. A delay in beginning the search process for an unrelated donor or cord blood unit could prevent patients from receiving the transplant they need or reduce the effectiveness of the outcome.

"Research demonstrates that earlier transplants have improved results," said Dennis L. Confer, M.D., NMDP chief medical officer. "By providing an easily accessible resource for payors, we hope to accelerate the decision-making process and help more patients receive the treatment they so desperately need."

The NMDP worked directly with payors to develop the Web site, which provides detailed information about disease treatments, referral timing, the transplant process, associated costs and outcomes. In addition, the site addresses misconceptions about marrow and cord blood transplantation, such as how the treatments differ significantly from organ transplantation in availability, timing and collection. For more information, please visit www.nmdp.org or call Debbie Jacobson in NMDP’s Office of Patient Advocacy at 1 (888) 999-6743, ext. 8504.