National Service Project 
Each year, more than 35,000 patients in the United States are diagnosed with leukemia or other life-threatening diseases that can be treated by marrow and blood cell transplantation. Only about one in four will find a donor match within their family, and the rest have to rely on the national donor registry for a possible match. The chances of finding a match have improved in the past few years, but there are still several minority patients battling fatal blood disorders who have not found a match.
Because tissue types are inherited, patients are most likely to find a match within their own racial or ethnic group. Only 34% of the registry comprises of people of color on the National Marrow Donor ProgramŪ (NMDP) Registry. Because the Registry holds fewer potential donors with the same racial or ethnic background, the people of the South Asian and minority communities are less likely than Caucasians to find potentially matched donors.
In 2002, South Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters (SAMAR) and the NMDP started the "Spring into Action - Save a Life" initiative with American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin which was a successful campaign recruiting 3302 donors to the registry. Therefore the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin Medical Students, Residents and Fellows Section (AAPI-MSRF) focus their 2007-2008 national service project to raising awareness about the bone marrow donor program as a second phase to "Spring into Action - Save a Life". AAPI-MSRF is an organization representing future medical professionals across North America. AAPI-MSRF works to strengthen bonds within the Indian medical community, provide the highest level of patient care, and organizes outreach and community service initiatives in both India and the United States. This year our efforts are to educate South Asians about the urgent need for them to register as marrow/blood cell donors. This joint-venture is between AAPI-MSRF, SAMAR and NMDP.
As part of our service project, we plan to create educational brochures which are focused on educating the South Asian community on Bone Marrow donation. The brochure will emphasize the need to donate, process of donation, questions about donation and the importance to respond once a match is made. The recall rate is very poor and the resources are wasted due to poor retention. Education in main regional languages from a medical person is our emphasis, and we plan on producing this brochure in English, Gujarati, Hindi and Bengali to distribute to various groups within our community.
We will launch this campaign in ten local chapters in metropolitan cities across the United States to during our 2007-2008. These events will educate our members on how to host donor recruitment drives in collaboration with SAMAR and publicize the resources available from NMDP for timely referral of patients. We will measure the success of our activities by the number of donor recruitment drives hosted and number of new donors added to the registry. We will also monitor the retention outcome of the donors who agree to go for donation.
How to setup a a Bone Marrow Drive?
Apply now for the NMDP-SAMAR & AAPI Bone Marrow Drive Scholarship!
