Facility Characteristics

Transplant Centers shall:

1. Be accredited by the Joint Commission, the American Osteopathic Association’s Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP), or the non-US equivalent for Transplant Centers located outside the United States. Transplant Centers may also be accredited by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapies (FACT) or be a member transplant center of the U.S. National Marrow Donor Program.


2. Have adequate physical resources to run an HPC transplant program, including, but not limited to, designated inpatient units that minimize airborne contamination; designated sites for management of search activities; and designated areas for outpatient evaluation and treatment available 24 hours per day and seven days per week—to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious agents.

Personnel and Transplant Team

Transplant Centers shall:

1. Ensure donors they deem to be suitably matched are requested for recipients for whom allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation is a medically acceptable procedure.


2. Have adequate resources to support donor search management activities, including a full time search coordinator who has a strong understanding of the search process, tissue typing methodologies, antigen specificities, and HLA nomenclature.


3. Have dedicated transplant medical teams, including a full time, licensed medical director with a background in allogeneic HPC transplantation and at least one other attending physician experienced in allogeneic HPC transplantation.


4. Have sufficient data management personnel to comply with GOL’s data submission requirements and to comply with GOL data and follow up requests in a timely manner.


5. Have sufficient support personnel possessing relevant experience and qualifications.


6. Have key staff readily accessible via telephone, facsimile pager, and e-mail.


7. Have a transplant team trained in the management of pediatric patients if the transplant center performs pediatric transplants.


8. Obtain IRB approval of any transplant protocols the transplant center’s IRB considers necessary.


9. Be responsible for reporting adverse events to regulatory agencies as required by law, applicable accrediting agencies as required by the terms of accreditation, and to GOL in a timely manner.


10. Ensure that their selected courier follows WMDA requirements for product transport. 

Policies and Procedures/Insurance

Transplant Centers shall:

1. Maintain adequate written policies and procedures relating to their transplant programs and quality assurance and improvement processes.


2. Ensure that their patients for whom Gift of Life donors are requested to donate HPCs give appropriate informed consent for their procedures and for the use of the particular donor(s) whose HPCs are intended for transplantation, including any unusual donor test results or characteristics that might increase the risk of transplantation-related harm to the recipient.


3. Procure and maintain, at their sole expense, policies of insurance with minimum limits specified in their participation agreements with Gift of Life, insuring them against any claims, liabilities, damages, and judgments that may arise as a result of carrying out their responsibilities under this Agreement.

Registry Access

The Gift of Life Registry is universally accessible to any patient worldwide needing an unrelated donor for transplantation. Transplant coordinators can search for Gift of Life donors in the following ways:

• Log on to the WMDA’s Search & Match Service, formerly operated by BMDW. Gift of Life has listed its donors with BMDW, and now the WMDA, for over 20 years; the anonymized HLA tissue typing data is updated routinely. If potential donors are listed with the designation USA4, contact Gift of Life to submit a preliminary search request.


• Gift of Life is an affiliate donor registry of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). Searches of the NMDP automatically include searches of Gift of Life’s registry.


• Gift of Life is a participant in the WMDA Search & Match Service, former known as EMDIS.  Our donors may be requested by any international registry that has access to this service.


• Donor searches are re-run on a regular basis and an automated alert is sent to the requesting Transplant Center when new matches are found. 

Gift of Life has adopted the following donor selection criteria:

• Diseases and disease stages treatable by hematopoietic cell transplantation are those promulgated by the NMDP.


• The minimal match criteria are at least a 7/8 match at an antigen level (serologic split) for HLA A, B, C and DRB1. Exceptions may be made by the Medical Director in cases when the Transplant Center has determined that no other more appropriate donor is available.


• A Transplant Center may request a particular donor to make a maximum of two subsequent donations for the same recipient. All requests require the approval of the Medical Director. The product that may be requested is dependent upon prior product(s) donated, the time frame since the prior donation and re-establishment of the donor’s eligibility and suitability to donate. Contact Gift of Life for further details on the policy.

Preliminary searches of the Gift of Life Registry may be ordered by physicians, Transplant Centers, and international registry Search Coordinating Units. A Transplant Center or international registry must order formal search activation for additional donor testing. We recommend that all searches be initiated in this manner in order to expedite the process.

Fee Schedule

Cooperative Registries / Transplant Centers should review the Fee Schedule prior to initiating requests.

Request Forms

Gift of Life is committed to adhering to the Standards promulgated by the WMDA and therefore accepts forms approved by the Donor Registries Working Group of the WMDA. These forms can be accessed by clicking here.

Patient Search Form

To download Gift of Life's Patient Search Form, click here.