Ballad Health, Niswonger Foundation Make Lifesaving Investment to Enhance Availability of Kidneys for Transplant, Reduce Costs of Care

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn., May 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- More than 100,000 people are currently on the national transplant waiting list for a kidney. While waiting, most must rely upon expensive and invasive dialysis services to remain alive. Sadly, while so many people are waiting for a kidney for transplant, more than 8,500 kidneys donated in the United States each year never reach a recipient and are discarded.

On Saturday, April 20, a team of perfusionists from 34 Lives, a Ballad Ventures portfolio company, used a combination of 34 Lives technology and logistics to rescue a human kidney that had originally been deemed not usable for transplant. The rescued kidney was successfully transplanted into a recipient who had been on dialysis for almost two years and has now been successfully discharged from the hospital to home. The transplant was performed at Indiana University Health by Dr. Bill Goggins, Professor of Surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Funded by a partnership that includes Johnson City, Tennessee-based Ballad Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of Ballad Health; Greeneville, Tennessee-based Niswonger Foundation; and the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), 34 Lives uses innovative technology to rescue hard-to-place kidneys and state-of-the-art logistics to transport these fragile organs from donor to recipient. 34 Lives, a company formed at Purdue University, is conducting an Implementation Study throughout the United States that will document 80 rescued kidneys in collaboration with 10 Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) and four transplant hospitals: Indiana University Heath, Mt. Sinai (New York), University of Wisconsin and University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital.

According to the NKF, nearly 750,000 Americans have irreversible kidney failure. Kidney transplantation not only provides a higher quality of life to individuals who, because of the transplant, will no longer need dialysis, but it also improves the individual's life expectancy. 

While improving access to transplantation lengthens and improves quality of life, it also has the potential to save taxpayers, consumers, insurers and employers hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The cost to Medicare for an individual to remain on dialysis for one year can exceed $100,000. For a commercial insurer, the cost can be as high as $300,000. Potentially eliminating the need for dialysis for thousands of patients per year will ...

Full story available on Benzinga.com