Press Releases

March 3, 2012

The Doctor Transplant Team was interviewed by covered by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazete reporter, Sean Hamil. See the online story here.


March 5, 2012

The Doctor Transplant Team travelled to San Francisco for a preliminary launch at the Game Developers Conference.
Read the Press Release.


Media Kit

Download a pack of graphics from the game to use in reporting on our project. All media and content are copyright 2012 by The University of Pittsburgh, all rights reserved.

Download a pack of background information about the Team and our Organizations.

Meet the Doctor Transplant Team

Howard Degenholtz, Ph.D.

Howard Degenholtz, Ph.D., principal investigator of the Doctor Transplant project, is founder and former director of the doctoral program in health services research and policy, associate director of research at the Center for Bioethics and Health Law and associate professor of health policy and management at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH).

His research interests include organ donation, aging and long-term care and ethical issues in health services research. In addition to the Doctor Transplant project, Degenholtz is the developer of an intervention to improve quality of life for nursing home residents. He is the principal investigator of four federally funded projects to increase organ donation.

Degenholtz is the author of many scholarly publications, is a member of the Academy for Health Services Research and the Gerontological Society of America and serves on the editorial board of The Gerontologist. He received his Bachelor of Arts from The Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in health services research, policy and administration, from the University of Minnesota.

Misty Enos

Misty Enos is associate director of community outreach for the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE), where she oversees public relations, community outreach and education and provides marketing and advertising expertise for the organization.

Enos previously worked as a nurse in a pediatric intensive care unit and worked with pediatric heart transplant recipients. At CORE, she has communications and public outreach manager on several federally-funded research projects. In addition, she is the secondary leader for Donate Life Pennsylvania and Donate Life West Virginia, helping to coordinate donation education throughout each state.

She received a Bachelor of Arts in communications from the University of Pittsburgh and her registered nurse designation from the UPMC School of Nursing.

The Organizations that Brought You Doctor Transplant

University of Pittsburgh

A nonsectarian, coeducational, state-related, public research university founded in 1787, the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a member of the prestigious by-invitation-only Association of American Universities and internationally renowned as a leading center of learning and research in the arts, sciences, humanities, professions, and health sciences.

Comprising a Pittsburgh campus, which is home to 16 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools, and four Western Pennsylvania regional campuses, Pitt offers nearly 400 distinct degree programs and confers more than 7,500 degrees annually. In the most recent rankings available from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), based upon figures for FY 2006, Pitt placed sixth nationally in terms of the grants won by members of the University’s faculty. And Pitt is ranked among the top 10 American research universities nationally in terms of total federal science and engineering research and development obligations.

For more information, visit www.pitt.edu

University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health

The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), founded in 1948 and now one of the top-ranked schools of public health in the United States, conducts research on public health and medical care that improves the lives of millions of people around the world. GSPH is a leader in devising new methods to prevent and treat cardiovascular diseases, HIV/AIDS, cancer and other important public health problems.

For more information about GSPH, visit www.publichealth.pitt.edu.

Center for Organ Recovery and Education

The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) is one of 58 federally designated agencies in the United States known as a not-for-profit organ procurement organization (OPO). An innovative, responsive OPO, CORE plays a pivotal role between potential donors and patients awaiting transplantation. In addition to talking with families about the opportunity to donate, CORE coordinates the surgical recovery of organs, tissue and corneas, as well as the computerized matching of donated organs and placement of corneas.

Founded in 1977 as the Transplant Organ Procurement Foundation of Western Pennsylvania and later known as the Pittsburgh Transplant Foundation, CORE changed to its existing name in 1992 to reflect its expanding role in the procurement field. In 1990, CORE established the first donor referral position to accept the growing number of referrals from hospitals. Additionally, CORE created in 1995 the first donor card database in Pennsylvania. In 1996, the organization added tissue recovery and eye banking services to its organ recovery component. It enhanced its line of services by opening an internal laboratory in 1997, where CORE performs the necessary tests to help determine if the organs, tissue and corneas are healthy for transplantation.

Since its inception more than 30 years ago, CORE has helped to provide more than 300,000 organs, tissue and corneas for transplantation. The chances for renewed health provided through CORE would not be possible without those who have said "yes" to donation.

CORE serves Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Chemung County, New York and works with 155 hospitals in its designated service area. Each hospital serves as a referral site for potential donors. There are five transplant centers in CORE’s designated service area: Allegheny General Hospital, Charleston Area Medical Center, Children's Hospital, University of Pittsburgh Presbyterian Hospital and Veteran's Administration Pittsburgh Healthcare System.

For more information about CORE, please visit www.core.org.

Megatherium Labs, LLC.

Megatherium Labs is a developer and publisher of iPad, iPhone and board games. The company was founded by Games for Change award winner Nathan Verrill, and focuses on real-world topics such as entrepreneurship, health awareness and nature.

For more information about Megatherium Labs, please visit megatheriumlabs.com.

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by a grant from the Division of Transplantation, in the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA). HRSA is part of the Federal Department of Health and Human Services.

For more information about the Division of Transplantation, please visit www.organdonor.gov.