The New England Program for Kidney Exchange (NEPKE), offers several alternatives for healthy, compassionate individuals to provide lifesaving organs to someone in need:

Exchange Programs

Paired Kidney Exchange allows incompatible donors to help their loved ones or friends receive a live donor kidney by matching one incompatible donor/recipient pair with another incompatible pair. The donors then exchange kidneys with a recipient of the other pair with whom they are compatible.

Living Donor – Deceased Donor List Exchange (LD-DD List Exchange) allows incompatible donors to donate a kidney to an individual on the deceased donor wait list, and realize a benefit to their intended recipient by increasing their status on the deceased donor wait list in accordance with an approved United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) variance. This option is limited to recipient who met certain medical criteria.

Non-Directed Donation

Non-Directed Living Donation, also referred to as “Good Samaritan Donor”, are individuals who donate to an unknown recipient as a truly altruistic gift. These donors have two options:

Non-Directed Donation through NEPKE: By donating to the New England Program for Kidney Exchange non-directed donors have the opportunity to facilitate 2 -3 kidney transplants as a result of their gift. The non-directed donor would be entered into the NEPKE computer system making it possible to match several incompatible donor/recipient pairs, increasing the number of kidney transplants preformed as a result of their one donation. Non-directed donors choose the New England transplant center they wish to donate to and a recipient at the top of that transplant center wait list receives a kidney from another donor in NEPKE.

Non-Directed Donation to a Specific Transplant Center: Non-directed donors choose the New England transplant center they wish to donate to. Based on blood type and genetic testing, the non-directed donor would donate to a recipient at the top of the waiting list at the transplant center of their choice.

Contact us if you are interested in becoming a living donor