Be The Match

Be The Match is an organization that connects bone marrow donors with the patients who desperately need them in order to treat life-threatening blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. Their website explains that their “registry includes nearly 13.5 million selfless volunteers who stand ready to be a life-saving bone marrow donor. […]Because there are patients who can’t find a match, we need more people to join the registry, and to be there when they are called as a match.” Using this vital and expansive registry, Be The Match works with doctors to facilitate transplants with non-relatives.

Be the Match is operated by the National Marrow Donor Program and is a non-profit organization established in 1986. Charity Navigator gave the organization a score of 82 out of 100 based on information on how they manage their finances and their level of accountability and transparency. While they do lose points on their financials (with a score of 75/100), it does seem that the program is largely devoted to pursuing the public good and saving lives.  

After my own nephew was diagnosed with Leukemia, I signed up with Be The Match. If you choose to do the process online, as I did, then you take a simple survey that includes your medical information. Next, a kit is mailed to your house and you take a few swabs of the inside of your mouth and mail the kit back to the organization; these swabs are used to include your DNA information into the registry so that you can be possibly matched with a patient in need. The whole process is simple, free, and easy.

The Big Data aspect of this organization is pretty straightforward; they have collected a lot of important information from their nearly 13.5 million volunteers and created an extensive registry that can be used by doctors to quickly locate possible donors. Essentially, they collect and record data in order to save lives. Recently I was contacted as a possible donor; a doctor found my information through the registry, the registry contacted me to establish that I was still interested, and if I am the best possible match I will be contacted to donate. The organization of this data is what makes it possible to facilitate these interactions.
I really encourage anyone reading this to go to their website (https://bethematch.org) and consider becoming a donor. For many patients, these donations are their last chance at a cure.