John has dedicated the last 6 years of his life to making the world a better place – to help increase lives saved and improved through organ, tissue and eye transplantation. But he’s not a surgeon or healthcare administrator or politician – instead, he’s a creative entrepreneur who has built modernized electronic medical records software for the transplant field.
John’s work fights against odds that are daunting: today, more than 100,000 people in the U.S. alone are waiting for an organ transplant. Nearly 20 of them will die every day due to the severe unavailability of organs. More than 10 million men, women and children worldwide suffer from corneal blindness that can be eliminated through ocular transplantation. Burn victims, amputees and many others can be helped through the transplantation of skin, bone and tissue that is in short supply as well.
Back in 2003, John made an enormous sacrifice and life decision – an Ivy League-educated, successful corporate attorney, media executive and Internet entrepreneur, John walked away from those successes, driven by his passion to contribute to society in a more meaningful way.
John created far-reaching partnerships with leading transplant surgeons and organ, tissue and eye transplant organizations spanning from California to New York and Washington, DC and many places in between. Working closely with these partners, he created a software organization – Transplant Connect – to step in and replace the inefficient paper and phone-based steps that slow down the donor-transplant process with modern, real-time, Web-based software.
Constantly traveling and often working for no salary, John’s dedication was so strong, he even mortgaged his Los Angeles beach house to fund his organization’s efforts in the early days. His perseverance and commitment to touching lives by improving transplantation has remained unyielding through those challenging and difficult times.
Transplant Connect has directly expedited, improved and modernized transplantation. Today, nearly 50% of all U.S. organ transplants are enabled by the software John’s organization created, and with his software, faster and better decisions are made, with the result that more lives are saved and improved.
John’s efforts have touched many thousands of lives across the U.S. in just a few short years. Through his resourcefulness, talents and dedication, John has already contributed greatly to creating a better world. John Piano
President & CEO, Transplant Connect
John works tirelessly to help increase lives saved and improved by organ, tissue and eye transplantation.
