“Bone Marrow Transplant Saved My Life — Raising Awareness to Register” is the topic of a panel discussion for the April 3 Schwartz Center Rounds.
The UNMC College of Public Health service learning project, Decreasing the Donor Deficit, will host the panel from noon to 12:50 p.m. in Sorrell Center, Room 2014. Lunch will be provided for the first 65 attendees.
Ruti Margalit, M.D., director of the Service Learning Academy and associate professor of health promotion, social & behavioral health, will open the session and then moderate the panel discussion.
Members of the panel are:
- Ron Azoulay, bone marrow recipient.
- Mojtaba Akhtari, M.D., assistant professor of oncology/hematology.
- Pat Pedersen, transplant nurse case manager.
Decreasing the Donor Deficit, a legacy project of the Service Learning Academy, works to increase the number of bone marrow donors from racial and ethnic minority populations. Significant health disparity exists in bone marrow donor registrants. Students promote and advocate the need for bone marrow donors to community members and help enroll new members in the Be the Match Registry, the National Marrow Donor Program.
In the 2012-2013 academic year, 30 students registered 204 new bone marrow donation registrants. Since the program’s inception, 100 students have registered close to 400 donors.