After receiving a kidney transplant, he develops a software to help others with the disease

After receiving a kidney transplant, he develops a software to help others with the disease.

David Jacobs is one of the lucky ones. In December 2004, the 25-year veteran of the software industry underwent a successful kidney transplant, which ended three and half years of suffering. Now, he's using his engineering talents to help other kidney disease victims.
When kidney disease struck unexpectedly in the spring of 2001, Jacobs was in the midst of a brilliant career. For years he displayed an exemplary track record of building fledgling start-ups into global corporations. Microsoft and Macromedia are among the many companies that benefited from his technical expertise.
Jacobs' illness sidelined him from the business he loved for three and a half years. He was put on the Deceased Organ Donor's waiting list, and spent one and a half years on dialysis. His health continued to decline rapidly.
After a transplant restored his health, Jacobs set out to help save the lives of others awaiting donor kidneys. Working closely with doctors at California Pacific, where he had his surgery, Jacobs developed software that could assist kidney patients who had healthy but incompatible donors. With Jacobs' Silverstone Solutions Matchmaker program, physicians can now match patients and donors with other donor/recipients. The idea is to find compatible donors quickly.
"Our experience suggests that pairing donors can help large numbers of patients who are on waiting lists," says Steven Katznelson, MD, medical director of the Kidney Transplant Program at California Pacific. "By using the Matchmaker Program, we hope to help as many patients as possible and spare them years on the waiting list."
Today a staggering 73,000 people are on that waiting list. The wait can take three years with 9 percent of patients dying before a suitable donor can be found. If only 20 percent of kidney patients can be helped by Matchmaker, 14,000 people could have normal kidney function restored fairly quickly.
But if Jacobs' many triumphs in the software industry are an indication, the Matchmaker program will save many more lives.
For more information, please visit www.SilverstoneSolutions.com.

David Alexander Nahmod is a freelancer reporter in San Francisco.

--By David Alexander Nahmod