Manage your organ donation decision - NHS App

NHS Digital and Kainos, September 2018 to May 2019

“This is tech saving lives. By making it easier for people to set their preferences for organ donation, we have thousands more people whose organs might now be used to save others.”

— Matthew Gould, then CEO NHSx

The challenge

Background

At the end of March 2018 in England:

  • 43% of people supported organ donation, but weren’t on the donor register

  • 3 people were dying each day due to a lack of suitable donors

Goal

The UK’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) wanted to make the donor register user-friendly. They believed this could increase the number of registered organ donors in England. Part of their strategy was to use the NHS App.

What we did

Improved content

Brought content in line with the NHS Digital content style guide (opens in new tab).

Simplified the journey

Created a single interaction journey for reaffirming your organ donation choice.

Created consensus

Helped NHS Blood and Transplant’s vision meet the NHS service standard (opens in new tab).

Iterated, iterated, iterated

Continuously tested content to ensure it was understood by people from diverse backgrounds.

 Results

Between the service launching in early 2019 and September 2021:

  • 265,000 people registered as organ donors for the first time

  • 1.5 million people used it to manage their organ donation decision

Health Service Journal Partnership Awards 2020 logo
“The benefits here are enormous.”
— Sajid Javid, then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Winner of System and Data Integration Award at Health Service Journal (HSJ) Partnership Awards 2020.