Resources
TRIO PCP ("Primary Care Physician") Program
TRIO Encouraging Family Physicians to Discuss Organ Donation with Patients....
To register as an organ donor, click here --> State Organ Donor Registries.
Studies have shown that primary care physicians support organ donation and feel it is within their responsibilities to educate patients about organ donation, but only a small percentage actually do. In support of the TRIO mission of Education and Donor Awareness, TRIO has launched a nationwide campaign to help physicians understand the facts of organ donation and encourage them to raise awareness in their daily practice.
Using TRIO members across the country in a "simple grassroots" approach, each is encouraged to ask the question on their next scheduled family doctor appointment, "Do you discuss organ donation with your patients?" Using their obviously known transplant experience to support a passion and transplant success story to engage their doctor on this subject, TRIO's PCP Campaign process offers easy to follow guidelines to respond to their doctor's response.
The TRIO PCP process is very simple (other groups have tried much more complex approaches, but all have failed!):
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On your scheduled family doctor (i.e. "primary care physician" or PCP) visit, casually remind him/her of your connection to organ donation/transplantation
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Ask if they ever talk to their patients about being an organ donor
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Depending on their response . . .
- If they say yes, they do, thank them and ask if they would like supporting brochures for their office or if they need any additional information for their own education and use
- If they say no, point out that according to studies most physicians both support organ donation and see it as part of their patient responsibility to bring up that topic - ask if they need information to help them in talking about the subject - offer to have them sent a doctor's fact sheet about organ donation and ask if you can have brochures sent for their office waiting area
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Follow up your visit with a call or e-mail to Sylvia in the TRIO national office with the results of your visit and she will arrange to have the materials sent to your doctor's office (have their name and address handy, of course)
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Sylvia can be reached via e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone by calling 1-800-TRIO-386 or (202) 293-0980
Call to Action . . .
Next time you have your normal family doctor appointment, ask them that question, then follow the process above to help TRIO provide supportive information to that doctor and his office in the form of educational brochures for their office waiting area.
In 1983, Brian Reames, a heart transplant recipient at the Presbyterian University Hospital of Pittsburgh (currently named the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center [UPMC]), found little support for transplant recipients. Brian recognized the need for an organization to help transplant recipients and their families cope with the challenges they encountered during their transplant experience. With Brian's vision and leadership, and the dedication of other patients at the UPMC such as Frank Rowe, the local support group Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO) was founded. The book by Lee Gutkind ((Norton Publishing, 1988), titled 'Many Sleepless Nights:The World of Organ Transplantation' documents some of those founding members stories and the earliest days of TRIO.
EIN# 251569468
Copyright © 2023 Transplant Recipients International Organization. All Rights Reserved.
17560 Buckingham Garden Drive Lithia, FL 33547 1-813-800- TRIO (8746) • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
17560 Buckingham Garden Drive Lithia, FL 33547 1-813-800- TRIO (8746) • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.