National Bone Marrow Transplant Link

The nbmtLINK’s goal is to find ways to make sure that patients are aware of our free available educational materials, some standard and many personalized to meet their "new normal" life post BMT/SCT, for long term survival. The nbmtLINK is working hard to provide an array of programs and resources including recorded webinars, recorded Lunch & Learn sessions, our Emmy winning documentary, “The New Normal” and our many popular books. Our free programs, including our FREE Marrow Masters podcasts, (we have 9 seasons at this time with 20,000+ downloads within 82 episodes) are VERY popular. We also, since COVID, to help with the isolation and social restrictions, started host interactive Zoom Coffee Klatches and just recently hosted our first Book Club and have plans for more. We also host several webinars utilize national expert provider as speakers, often coupled with the real-life perspective of survivors and caregivers. Recorded programs allow thousands more to access these educational sessions as time permits. We have many caregiver programs to ease the burden and help the dedicated caregiver realize they are not alone. Seasoned caregivers as well as late effect survivors can offer monumental psychosocial support through our peer support program. We strive to add at least one new program per year and have other innovative ideas in the pipeline.

We have worked very hard on developing the most important strategies to achieve these past few years and we are seeing a big difference in raising awareness, funds and increasing programming. We have increased our presence/exposure greatly, which makes more programs possible and helps us reach more patients and their families. We have increased our fundraising efforts on every level. And so excited to report our programming has expanded significantly as well.

Our website speed and Search Engine Optimization(SEO) increased extraordinarily this past year. The core vitals project (Phase 3) has been completed and the overall SEO Score went from 89% to 93%.* (Note: we started the SEO project slightly over a year ago in March 2022 and our SEO score then was 72%.) The page load time went from an average of 4 secs to 1 sec due to core vitals.

We have a much stronger social media presence. (Comparing Jan 2022- April 2022)
• Facebook page reach is up 40% YOY
• Instagram page reach is up 344% YOY
• Message conversations are also up 275% (15 total)

We have also increased collaboration with like minded partners and funders. Our funding from individuals and foundations has increased and our Link Partners are stable, now that is it post COVID. We continuously look for ways to increase the benefits of being a Link Partner and it is working wonderfully. We have updated four of our books, making them more desirable to individuals as well as to hospitals who benefit from their allotment, which is included in their partnership. The need for many, many more speakers has increased our engagement and visibility.

Peer Mentors: Often our new patients become our veteran mentors who give back to the newly diagnosed who are often scared and overwhelmed. Our guest blog tab on our website also offers advice from the trenches. Our licensed staff social worker is also available free of charge one on one by phone.

We have access to many subject matter experts (health care professionals, experts in different fields such as caregiving and standards of care that enable us to provide credible content in order to develop well attended programs. Our constituents trust us and count on us to listen to them and create programs to address their unmet needs. Surveys help us better understand these needs.

Patient and caregiver education for long-term is often not a part of the education at discharge from a transplant center. We meet new patients each year when newly diagnosed, during treatment and throughout survivorship. In doing this for decades, we have built strong relationships with health care professionals and experts in the field. Many centers that support us annually, our Link Partners, share our mission with their patients, help us write new books and promote our many diverse resources.

Our unique access to patients, through our strong developed mailing lists and collaborative partnerships with like-minded non-profits allows us to reach future patients in need of our services. Often our new patients become our veteran mentors who give back to the newly diagnosed who are often scared and overwhelmed. Our guest blog tab on our website also offers advice from the trenches. Our licensed staff social worker is also available free of charge one on one by phone.

We have seen a large surge in our website visits. We hear from patients regularly thanking us. What has been amazing to see is the many future new programs that result from our current ones. The increased funding enables up to create more much needed programs.

We have been able to measure, through the numbers registered the dire need for certain topics to be covered. Patients we help are very willing to share what they need and know it will help others in the future. We are always investigating new programming ideas through different platforms, realizing people are mobile and desperate for authentic, factual information from top experts and kind-hearted survivors and caregivers that is accessible anywhere, anytime. It is our honor to meet them where they are and continuously re-evaluate our strategies regarding the best vehicles to deliver psychosocial support.

We have met many of our goals and our progress is significant in all areas. We will continue to work hard and add more goals in the future and ensure we do not let up on the important initiatives we have met and are still striving to exceed to ensure our viability and mission.