Dorry Segev, MD, PhD, was featured in a March 9th, 2010, US News & World Report article that reported on the conclusion of a study on the health risks and mortality associated with kidney donation. Dr. Segev found that kidney donors live as long as, or longer than, non-donors, even though the risk of death from the operation is 3.1 per 10,000 donors. After a year, however, a kidney donor’s risk of dying becomes lower than a non-donor’s, one speculated reason being that a donor cares more about his health when he only has a single kidney left. Dr. Segev’s study of over 80,000 U.S. donors within a 15-year period is the largest of such studies and was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. According to Segev, “[kidney donation] happens to be one of the safest operations you can ever possibly have.” Dr. Segev is an associate professor of Surgery and Epidemiology and the director of Clinical Research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She was also the recipient of a 2009 Paul Beeson Career Development Award in Aging Research.
