UC Nephrology Faculty Plays Key Role in First 'Big Ask, Big Give' Event

The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) of Greater Cincinnati hosted the first local "Big Ask, Big Give” workshop at WKRC-TV, Channel 12, on Nov. 30, 2017. Amit Govil, MD, professor in the Division of Nephrology, Kidney CARE Program and medical director, Kidney Transplant Program in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine, is the board chair of the NKF of Greater Cincinnati, and was the only physician taking part in the workshop. 

The Cincinnati "Big Ask, Big Give” workshop was sponsored by UC Health, Cincinnati Children’s, The Christ Hospital and LifeCenter Organ Donor Network. This was the first in a planned series of workshops designed to help kidney patients find a living donor. Open to kidney patients, family members, friends, and potential living donors, the workshops provide interactive education about living donation and transplant, and teach the best, most effective strategies and tips for finding a living donor.

Govil was one of eight people taking phone calls during the workshop from people wanting to know more about being a living kidney donor.

"20,000 people get transplanted each year, but there are 100,000 people on the transplant list, so there are 80,000 people every year waiting for an organ,” says Govil. "Of those 20,000 kidney transplants only 5,000 transplants are from living donors, so there is much more than can be done for our patients on the transplant list who are dying every day.”

Govil says the NKF of Greater Cincinnati plans to have a "Big Ask, Big Give” workshop every three months and the next one is scheduled for UC on March 8, 2018, World Kidney Day. Details of that event will be announced in early 2018.