This article was written by Rebekah Apple.

Right now, more than 107,000 Americans wait for a life-saving organ transplant. The list grows with another name every 11 minutes, and every day, 18 people on that list die.

One organ donor can save eight people’s lives and a tissue donor can help up to 50 others. The fact remains, however, that there simply aren’t enough organs to save everyone on the waiting list.

Signing up to become a donor is easy — most Americans can designate themselves as donors when they get their drivers license and, in many states, that designation transfers their information to a state database. In the event of their death, organ donation professionals access that database, which begins the process of saving lives.

Making the decision to become a donor is different; it requires a clear understanding of the way donation works — which can prove difficult, given various persistent myths about donation.

Organ donation and transplantation, like any other health-based decision, should be made based on facts, not fears. So here’s the truth:

1. Organs which can be donated include the heart, lungs, liver, small intestine, pancreas and kidneys. Numerous tissues can be donated, including corneas, bone, skin, tendons, ligaments, heart valves, veins, arteries and more.

2. All major religions in the United States support organ donation. Many consider it the highest form of charity and — even if there is a religious rule or law about what should be done with someone’s body after they die — that rule becomes secondary if the possibility of saving someone else’s life exists.

3. It is possible to have an open casket funeral after organ and tissue donation. For example, donated skin is recovered from the back of the body. Organ recovery occurs like any other surgery, in a hospital’s operating room.

4. There is no cost to the family if their loved one becomes an organ and tissue donor.

5. Organ donation occurs as a result of a head trauma — such as a car accident or stroke. An individual who has been brought to the hospital after such injury must be declared brain dead in order for donation professionals to proceed with the donation process.

   Brain death is not the same thing as a coma or a persistent vegetative state (PVS). A coma is a state of ongoing unconsciousness and not necessarily permanent. PVS results in the destruction of the higher functioning portions of the brain and is permanent. In both cases, the individual is still very much alive. Brain death, however, is the complete cessation of all brain function; when the brain swells to the point where it receives no blood or oxygen supply, the person will die.

6. The physicians who determine brain death are not the same physicians responsible for the organ donation process. Hospital staff is obligated to do one thing: exhaust every measure necessary to save someone’s life. Donation becomes a possibility when each measure fails.

7. Upon arriving in the emergency room with a serious head trauma, patients are typically placed on circulatory support. This is because the brain — responsible for telling the body what to do — has suffered an injury, and supportive machines will keep the rest of the body functioning while the brain recovers. But that support can’t repair brain damage. If the brain dies while the patient is on support, the machines can continue functioning for a short time; therefore, the organs will continue receiving blood and oxygen. Those organs can then be donated to save the lives of others.

8. Organ donors can also become tissue donors, but becoming a tissue donor does not require brain death. At the time of tissue transplantation, there are actually no living cells in the donated tissue.

Brain death doesn’t occur that often. In fact, less than 1% of deaths in the United States are brain deaths [1]. And not every person who suffers such a fate designated themselves as organ donors.

Those waiting for life-saving transplants can’t be compared to people with other illnesses. End-stage organ failure isn’t worse or better than cancer or heart disease, but it’s different because the cure lies in selflessness. People on the waiting list depend on the generosity of others in order to survive.

If you’ve already designated yourself as a donor, you may wonder what else you can do to help save lives. The answer is simple: tell others. Tell your family and friends what you’ve decided and encourage them to learn more, as well. Additional information is available — and the opportunity to sign up as a donor — at www.donatelifeamerica.net.

About the author: Rebekah Apple is the Public Affairs Coordinator at the LifeLink Foundation, a non-profit community service organization dedicated to the recovery of life-saving and life-enhancing organs and tissue for transplantation therapy. Her goal is to share the truth about the donation process and allow everyone the opportunity to make an informed decision.

References

1. Understanding Death Before Donation. The Gif of a Lifetime. Accessed 2010 Aug 25.

Welcome to Medlib’s Round, edition 2.7, the monthly blog carnival highlighting excellent blog posts in the field of medical information. Just under a year ago, we hosted MedLibs Round 1.8: Finding Credible Health Information Online. For this edition, we wanted to focus on how social media is being used to promote health information online.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the term mobile is being used quite often when discussing social media and health. Indeed, according to a recent Pew Internet report, 59% of adults are now accessing the internet wirelessly using a laptop or cell phone [1].

Keeping with this month’s theme, we’re tweeting and sharing posts using the Twitter hashtags #medinfo and #medlibs. If you like a particular post, share it with your friends and be sure to add both hashtags.

Leveraging social media to promote health information online

@SusannahFox

Health is social. Health is mobile. What are you spreading?
Mobile, Social Health at the National Library of Medicine

@eagledawg

New NLM widgets to access information from MedlinePlus on your own website or blog such as the search cloud.
Widgety Mobile-y New? Thoughts on NLM & Social Media

@krafty

The mobile web is just one part of social medicine. How’s it working for MedlinePlus?
MedlinePlus Mobile Review and Social Medicine

@amcunningham

Slideshow discussing the use of social media for communication between people and health professionals (with audio!)
Health Professionals and Social Media

@laikas

For Web 2.0-critical people, what works and what doesn’t: Collaborating and Delivering Literature Search Results to Clinical Teams Using Web 2.0 Tools

@berci

The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, a first-of-its-kind social media center focused on health care.
Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media

@KevinMD

With sites like the Mayo Clinic recently announcing their Center for Social Media, many more hospitals will follow once they discover that social media in healthcare is here to stay.
Can Twitter and Facebook help prospective medical students?

@MaverickNY

To make social media work well you need to integrate it with more traditional approaches that capture the imagination and inspire people.
Social media is NOT a strategy …

@eyeonfda

The FDA’s CDER is considering the development of a new blog aimed at communicating matters of drug safety and risk management.
FDA Advances in Social Media – What’s it Mean for Industry?

@DrShock

Does Facebook and other social networking services damage the profession of physicians or the public trust?
Facebook and Professionalism

@PhilBaumann

Slideshow discussing the importance of understanding the nature of emerging media before just jumping into the latest craze.
Healthcare Uses of Social Media

@HighlightHEALTH

healthfinder.gov tool that makes it easier and faster to find actionable prevention and wellness tips.
The Quick Guide to Healthy Living

iMedicalApps

There are many ways to engage patients. The Israel Deaconess Medical Center iPhone app enables patients to learn more about the medical center and search for affiliated doctors.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Releases iPhone App for Patients

@DermMatters

Increased efficacy, safety and patient satisfaction for dermatologic procedures.
Technological Advances in Medicine & Dermatology, part 1
Technological Advances in Medicine & Dermatology, part 2.

@MarkHawker

Conversation is great, but social collaboration is much better.
My Elephant in the Room: Healthy Engagement

@mfenner

Flipboard is a personalized social magazine specifically designed for the iPad.
Flipboard Changes the Way We Use Twitter

Conclusion

That concludes this month’s edition of MedLib’s Round. Past and future hosts can be found on the MedLib’s Round blog carnival index page.

If you’d like to follow along with MedLib’s Round every month, subscription options are available: you can follow by email or RSS feed. An aggregated feed of credible, rotating health and medicine blog carnivals is also available. The Health and Medicine Blog Carnival Mashup can also be followed on Twitter @BioMedCarnivals, FriendFeed (BioMedical Carnivals) and Facebook (BiomedCarnivals).

Are you a Twitter user? Tweet this!

References

1. Mobile Access 2010. Pew Internet & American Life Project. 2010 Jul 7.

Earlier this year, we reported on the National Health Observances Toolkit, a resource at healthfinder.gov to help promote certain health observances. Late last month, they released another really useful tool: the Quick Guide to Healthy Living.

Your job, friends, the kids — we’re all on tight schedules these days. You try to stay up-to-date with prevention and wellness tips, but often there isn’t time to search through all the complex health information on the Web. The Quick Guide to Healthy Living now makes it easier — and faster — to find actionable prevention and wellness tips.

The guide features one-page, printable tools so you can find information to help you and those you care about stay healthy. Topics range from “Nutrition and Fitness” to “For Parents” to “Cancer Screening and Prevention” and include articles such as:

• Manage stress and protect yourself from serious health problems
• Take a heart healthy shopping list with you to the grocery store
• Prevent allergy and asthma attacks at home
• Get tested for breast cancer
• Prevent mosquito and tick bites

Most of the guides have three sections, displayed as tabs on the page: Overview, The Basics and Take Action. Each guide also provides suggestions — Start Today: Small Steps — to help you get started right away.

With over 80 health and wellness tips, there’s something for everyone. It’s easy, it’s fast and it’ll help you stay healthy: the Quick Guide to Healthy Living from healthfinder.gov.

Birth control pills are a very popular form of birth control and are currently used by almost 12 million women in the United States and more than 100 million women worldwide [1-2]. Typically referred to as “the pill”, oral contraception has an interesting history and has generated enormous social and cultural impact.

Subsequent to drug trials in the mid-1950’s, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved birth control pills for contraceptive use in the U.S. in 1960. The first published case report of a blood clot and pulmonary embolism in a woman using birth control pills did not appear until November 1961 [3]. Between 1961 and 1963 there were 347 cases of thrombophlebitis (meaning vein inflammation related to a blood clot) in women using birth control pills for contraception that were reported to the manufacturer [4]. After almost 10 years of epidemiological studies, it was established that there is an increased risk of venous thrombosis (meaning a blood clot that forms in a vein) in oral contraceptive users and an increased risk of stroke and heart attack in oral contraceptive users who smoke or have high blood pressure or other cardiovascular or cerebrovascular risk factors.

Womens Health Zone recently posted an infographic surveying the changes that have resulted from the use of birth control pills. The infographic provides insight into statistics collected from PlannedParenthood.org on birth control over the last 50 years and is republished here on Highlight HEALTH below.

photo credit: Expedient InfoMedia

References

1. Mosher et al. Use of contraception and use of family planning services in the United States: 1982-2002. Adv Data. 2004 Dec 10;(350):1-36.
   PMID: 15633582
   View Abstract
2. Trussell, James (2007). “Contraceptive Efficacy”. in Hatcher, Robert A., et al.. Contraceptive Technology (19th rev. ed.). New York: Ardent Media.
3. Jordan WM and Anand JK. Pulmonary embolism. Lancet. 1961 Nov 18;278(7212): 1146–7.
4. Tyler ET. Oral contraception and venous thrombosis. JAMA. 1963 Jul 13;185(2):131-2.
   View Abstract