The NMDP is involved in worldwide outreach to facilitate unrelated matches by sponsoring partnerships with donor centers in other countries in Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East and Australia. This computer system stores all of the donor and recipient records and automatically performs searches every 24 hours for patients in need of a transplant. After the success of this transplant, individual groups organized drives around the country to recruit potential donors for their family member in need. The NMDP was formed in 1986 in order to unify all of the distributed information into one system in order to facilitate unrelated matches nationwide. The blood of newborns is found in the umbilical cord and contains a large number of stem cells which are important for marrow transplants.
All information is kept confidential at the cord blood bands located throughout the United States.
In 1996 the NMDP announced that marrow transplants are now the only known cure for sickle cell anemia. Other most commonly treated diseases by bone marrow transplants are listed below. However, the number of people who are not successfully matched far outnumbers those that do receive a match. There is still a critical shortage of matches through the NMDP, especially for minorities. At any given time, there is an average of 3000 patients searching the NMDP Registry.