(New York, N.Y.) February 7, 2006 – The New York Organ Donor Network has announced that Dale Distant, M.D., will serve as chairperson of its board of directors through December 2007. Dr. Distant is the director of the division of transplantation in the department of surgery at SUNY Medical Center in Brooklyn. In addition to being the head of a key transplant program in New York and at one of the largest medical universities in the United States, Dr. Distant is one of only 40 African-American transplant surgeons and physicians in the nation. For the past two years, Dr. Distant served in the capacity of the Donor Network’s vice-chairperson. Prior to that, he was the board’s secretary and an active board member.

The New York Donor Network is the nation’s second largest federally designated nonprofit organization. It serves 13 million people in the Greater New York metropolitan area.

Elaine Berg, president and CEO of the New York Organ Donor Network, said, “Dr. Distant has devoted a great deal of his valuable time over many years assisting with the Donor Network’s public and professional education efforts throughout the New York metro area. We are privileged to have him accept this important position of leadership as we seek to increase the number of organ and tissue donors in an area with a population as diverse as the New York metropolitan area. We have no doubt that Dr. Distant, as a highly-respected and distinguished figure in the medical field and community at large will help to take the Donor Network to another level in our ongoing effort at saving lives through transplantation.”

Dr. Distant has high expectations for his term as chairman of the board. “Organ and tissue donation is unique because it must be based on public trust,” he said. “It is my hope that I can increase the consent rate by focusing on quality assurance and quality improvement. With a consent rate in the New York metro area below 50 percent, we need to raise the bar in every way we can so that, ultimately, no patients die while awaiting transplants.”

Dr. Distant pointed out that that there is an urgent need for more donors because of the growing number of people of all racial groups and ethnicities waiting for transplants. “However,” he said, “perhaps the critical situation is best highlighted when we compare waiting list data against overall census figures. A disproportionate number of minorities—by a staggering ratio of three to one—need transplants.” According to the latest data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the organization that maintains the national organ waiting list, more than 90,000 patients need a transplant. Of these, 24,760 are black, 14,156 are Hispanic, and 5,052 are Asian.

In an article written for inclusion in the winter 2002 issue of the Donor Network’s publication, On the Beat, Dr. Distant suggested that Medicare needs to be assigned a substantial advertising budget to promote organ donation in the United States. “Americans need to know that organ donation is a good thing,” he wrote. “The federal government and the American taxpayers will benefit directly and this justifies federal expenditures of tens of millions of dollars in order to realize much greater savings."

Born in Kingston Jamaica, Dr. Distant holds a B.S. Biomedical Science degree from the City College of New York and he obtained his graduate medical degree at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Dr. Distant also carried out his residency at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. He completed Fellowships at SUNY Health Science at Brooklyn in renal transplant surgery and at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, in liver transplant surgery.

Dr. Distant has been a member of many national and regional committees relating to transplantation and donation. Among the organizations where he held leadership positions were the United Network for Organ Sharing’s (UNOS) Minority Affairs Committee; the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Scientific Registry for Transplant Recipients; and the advisory board for the Minority Organ and Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP).

Among honors and awards bestowed upon Dr. Distant were his election to membership in Alpha Omega Alpha; and the SUNY Downstate Medical Center Pollock Award for Compassion, Dedication and Abiding Concern for Patient Welfare.

For more information, contact Martin Woolf at 646-291-4460 or via e-mail at mwoolf@nyodn.org.