The Carlos and Marguerite Mason Trust has granted $1.1 million to the MCG comprehensive transplant program to fund satellite transplant evaluation and treatment centers, and expand living related and unrelated donor kidney transplantation.

The Mason Trust will meet the needs of those in rural communities without transplant services as well as educate the public about the importance of living related and unrelated donor kidney transplantation. Over the next three years, MCG Health System will establish the Carlos and Marguerite Mason Trust Satellite Transplantation Evaluation and Treatment Centers in several different sites around the state. These centers will act as hubs to help provide transplant evaluation and follow-up for patients living in rural areas.

"According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than a million Georgians suffer from some form of chronic kidney disease," said Dr. James Wynn, Chief of Transplant Surgery at MCG Health System. "In addition, more than 7,000 Georgians are dependent on dialysis. For many of these patients who live in underserved rural areas, there may be significant barriers to transplantation, from lack of services to inability to travel. Our program proposes to break down these barriers to help ensure that all Georgians in need of kidney transplants will receive that care."

MCG physicians will travel to and from the centers and will partner with the patients’ own physicians. All aspects of a patient’s care will take place in the center, with their only travel being to Augusta for the actual transplant. "Patients will benefit from the center’s collaboration with area physicians in pre- and post-transplant care," said Dr. Adam Bingaman, a kidney transplant surgeon at MCG Health System.

A component of the centers is providing education for families, the community and medical staff on the importance of living donation. Living donation of a kidney, either from family members or unrelated volunteers, increases opportunities for those in need of kidney transplants and offers better long-term outcomes for recipients. In addition, thanks to advanced laparoscopic techniques for kidney removal, donors experience faster healing times, less pain, less blood loss and less scarring.

In recent years, higher rates of type II diabetes in minority patients has lead to epidemic growth in kidney disease. However, while dialysis centers have sprung up across the state to meet this need, kidney transplantation has not kept pace.

"The result is that those on the waiting list for a kidney have to wait much longer for a kidney transplant than in previous years," said Dr. Laura Mulloy, Chief of Nephrology at MCG Health System. "However, it is a fact that kidney transplants improve life expectancy when compared to remaining on dialysis, and that the best results come when a transplant is performed early on in the course of a patient’s disease and before a patient begins dialysis." Of the four kidney transplantation centers in the state, only one-the MCG comprehensive transplant program-is located outside of metropolitan Atlanta.

As MCG Health System moves forward in building an infrastructure for its transplant program, a final aim is to provide support for other types of transplants in the future, including heart transplants.

"Through these programs, we hope to double the rate of living donors and increase the number of rural transplant candidates on the waiting list by 10 percent annually, both over a five-year period," said Dr. Wynn.

"The Mason Trust has funded a number of similar programs and research at MCG Health System, and we’ve had a strong, long-standing relationship with them as one of the nation’s top academic medical centers," said George Atkins, a trustee with the Mason Trust. "The Mason Trust focuses on helping needy Georgians with human organ transplants and on funding research related to improvements in transplantation. The program presented by MCG Health System absolutely focuses on that goal."

The Mason Trust was established in 1991 by Marguerite Fugazzi Mason in memory of Carlos Mason. By provision of Mrs. Mason’s will, the purpose of the trust is to support clinical endeavors and research for transplants of eyes, kidneys, hearts and other organs in the state of Georgia. Since 1993, the trust has invested more than $7.6 million in MCG programs, facilities and services.

MCG Health System is composed of three separate organizations -- MCG Health, Inc. and the clinical services offered by the faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia and the members of the Physicians Practice Group. The physicians of MCG Health System are community physicians, faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia, and employees of the Physicians Practice Group, not employees of MCG Health Inc. MCG Health, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation operating the MCG Medical Center, MCG Children’s Medical Center, the MCG Sports Medicine Center, MCG Ambulatory Care Center, the Georgia Radiation Therapy Center and related clinical facilities and services. MCG Health, Inc. was formed to support the research and education mission of the Medical College of Georgia and to build the economic growth of the CSRA, the state of Georgia and the Southeast by providing an environment for faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia and the Physicians Practice Group and community physicians to deliver the highest level of primary and specialty health care. For more information, please visit www.MCGHealth.org.