Message and Messenger Project
Umbilical cord blood can help to save a life - but only if the person who needs it can find a match in the public bank. Ethnicity plays a role in finding a match, and there are not enough cord blood matches in the public banks for African-Americans and Hispanics who need treatment.
In 2008, HealthConnect One began spearheading a new program to determine the best message and the best messenger for encouraging African-American and Hispanic families to donate umbilical cord blood for the treatment of cancers and various blood diseases.
Results from the focus groups conducted with birthing moms were published online in the peer-reviewed journal, Transfusion, on December 29, 2009. Link here for an abstract.
Based on these focus groups, an outreach toolkit for community health workers is now being piloted at Access Kling Clinic, Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, Miles Square Health Center, and the Westside Association for Community Action (WACA).
While our toolkit is specific to Illinois, our audio slideshow and story cards may be useful to community agencies, peer educators or medical providers across the country. We encourage you to use and share these materials - and let us know what you think!
Why Cord Blood?
Umbilical cord blood can help to save a life - but only if the person who needs it can find a match in the public bank. Ethnicity plays a role in finding a match, and there are not enough cord blood matches in the public banks for African-Americans and Hispanics who need treatment. With greater representation from these communities, birthing families will help increase our nation's capacity to provide matches for life-saving treatments.
"... an area of stem cell research and treatment that is indisputably acceptable on moral grounds and remarkably promising in terms of clinical benefits: The use of umbilical cord blood retrieved immediately after live births... Umbilical cord blood stem cells have successfully treated thousands of patients with dozens of diseases. They also exhibit properties once associated chiefly with embryonic stem cells: They grow rapidly in culture, producing enough cells to be clinically useful in both children and adults; they can treat patients who are not an exact genetic match, without being rejected as foreign tissue; and they seem able to produce a wide array of different cell types."
- Cardinal William H. Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore, in a letter of July 11, 2005 on behalf of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Partner Hospitals
- Mercy Hospital
- Mount Sinai Hospital
