The HRSA program launched in 2003 as part of the HHS' Gift of Life Donation Initiative, to 1) identify and promote the best practices in organ donation and procurement for hospitals and OPOs achieving the highest donation rates in the country, and 2) raise the overall donor consent rate to 75 percent among participating hospitals and OPOs. An increase in deceased donors by 4.3 percent occurred from 2002 to 2003 with the donor consents increasing by five percent. The model for the Breakthrough Collaborative was based upon the best-practice strategies developed by HRSA and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

The Department of Health and Human Services joined with key national leaders and practitioners from the Nation's transplantation and hospital communities in April 2003 to launch the Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative. The Collaborative is intended to dramatically increase access to transplantable organs. The purpose of this initiative is clear, measurable, ambitious, and achievable: Committed to saving or enhancing thousands of lives a year by spreading known best practices to the nation's largest hospitals to achieve organ donation rates of 75 percent or higher in these hospitals.