Increasing Organ Donor Registrations in Motor Vehicles Offices Through Health Communication

ABSTRACT

Health communication research has played a prominent role in the body of scholarship seeking to meaningfully increase the number of life-saving organs available to waitlisted patients. The current paper builds on earlier work in communication seeking to promote organ donation to individuals in community and organizational settings. The goal of this essay is to review health communication-based interventions seeking to meaningfully increase organ donation registrations in motor vehicles’ offices (DMV) transactions in the USA. For convenience, I use the acronym DMV, although it is understood different states use different titles for this office. Before describing the nature and impact of communication interventions and their impact in DMV contexts, I will provide context for the problem and briefly review the role of DMV registrations in relation to demand for organs in the United States.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Brian Quick, Aisha Tator, and Matthew Boger for their insights on organ donation registration in DMV offices.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Donor designation share uses the number of registered donors in a given state as the numerator and the estimated population of adults in the state as the denominator. These tables will be provided on my public website by time of publication with reference to the link in essay.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.