Transplant Connect Founder and CEO John Piano Selected as GQ Magazine’s “Better Man for 2009”

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--John Piano, Founder and CEO of Transplant Connect, has been named GQ magazine’s “Better Man for 2009.” Piano was selected for this award after a four-month long nation-wide search by GQ for an “agent of change striving for the betterment of society through charitable work, volunteerism and/or community involvement.”

“There’s a severe shortage of organs for transplant, with 20 Americans on the transplant wait list dying every day. Many others are in need of cornea and tissue transplants”

GQ asked readers to nominate individuals actively working to make the world a better place, then selected the five best submissions as finalists. Readers determined the winner by popular vote. Piano was given the award at the second annual Gentlemen’s Ball in New York City on October 28, 2009, which was attended by many notable guests, including Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Mark Wahlberg and Adrian Grenier, as well as a long list of fashion and media elite and corporate sponsors.

Introduced at the Gentlemen’s Ball as a “Visionary for Global Health,” Piano was cited for his work with Transplant Connect, which he created to provide web-based, real-time electronic medical records software for the organ, tissue and eye transplant field. Replacing inefficient paper and phone-based steps, Transplant Connect’s iTransplant Platform reduces errors and streamlines and expedites the availability of organs, tissue and corneas for transplantation across the United States. The impact is that many more lives can now be saved and improved than in previous years.

Today, six years after Piano left successes as a corporate attorney and media/internet executive to found Transplant Connect, nearly 50 percent of all U.S. organ transplants - some 12,000 to 14,000 per year - are enabled by the company’s software platform.

Along the way, Piano has become a tireless public advocate for organ, tissue and eye donation.

“There’s a severe shortage of organs for transplant, with 20 Americans on the transplant wait list dying every day. Many others are in need of cornea and tissue transplants,” Piano said. “If I can help make a difference by raising awareness for organ, tissue and eye donation, I’ll do everything I can to do so.”

At the GQ Gentlemen’s Ball 2009, Piano announced he was accepting his award on behalf of the 10 million blind individuals around the world who could one day see again with cornea transplants, and the hundreds of thousands awaiting organ or tissue transplants. He pledged to donate the $10,000 charitable contribution that comes with the Better Man 2009 award to the National Kidney Foundation.

About Transplant Connect:

Transplant Connect is an innovative medical software firm that specializes in electronic medical record and clinical information systems for the organ, tissue and eye transplant field. It was founded in 2003, with the mission of improving and increasing transplantation through modern software and communications. The iTransplantSM Platform is a web-centric software and communications platform that has been widely adopted across the United States and is responsible for handling nearly 50% of all U.S. donor transplant cases. For more information, visit http://www.transplantconnect.com/.

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