New system’s goal: Reduce overall deaths and increase access for patients waiting for lung transplants
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) has rolled out a new organ allocation system designed to be more equitable and effective for patients in need of lung transplants. Read more from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
For nearly 40 years, the United Network for Sharing Organs (UNOS) has controlled the organ transplant system.
But that’s about to change. Last week, the government announced plans to completely overhaul the system by breaking up the network’s multi-decade monopoly.
Listen to the full story on NPR.com.
By Andrew Rhoades
Walking the recommended daily step count even a couple days per week was associated with a significantly lower risk for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality over 10 years, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.
“In modern society, lack of time is one of the major barriers to exercise,” Kosuke Inoue, MD, PhD, an assistant professor at Kyoto University in Japan, and colleagues wrote. Read the full story in Healio.
By Sophie Putka
Liver transplant waitlist candidates who are smaller in size are significantly less likely than larger candidates to receive a liver transplant, contributing to a sex disparity in organ transplants, according to a retrospective study.
After candidates were categorized into six groups according to body surface area (BSA) from smallest (group 1) to largest (group 6), it was found that with each increase in group number, waitlist time decreased (234 days for group 1 vs 179 days for group 6, P<0.001), reported Catherine E. Kling, MD, MPH, of the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues.
Read the full story in MedPage Today.
As part of the worldwide effort to facilitate a research and clinical pathway toward successful xenotransplantation -; the transplantation of living cells, tissues and organs from one species to another -; two Johns Hopkins Medicine surgeons, Kazuhiko Yamada, M.D., Ph.D., and Andrew Cameron, M.D., Ph.D., will receive a total of $21.4 million in funding over the next two years under two sponsored research agreements with biotechnology company United Therapeutics Corporation. The company focuses on developing novel pharmaceutical therapies and technologies that expand the availability of transplantable organs. Read more from News Medical Life Sciences.
Citing the need to modernize the US organ transplantation framework, the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has announced the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Modernization Initiative. The OPTN aims to accelerate progress in areas including technology, data transparency and analytics, governance, operations, and quality improvement and innovation. Read more in this American College of Surgeons (ACS) Brief.
New rules requiring donated livers to be offered for transplant hundreds of miles away have benefited patients in New York, California and more than a dozen other states at the expense of patients in mostly poorer states with higher death rates from liver disease, a data analysis by The Washington Post and the Markup has found.
The shift was implemented in 2020 to prioritize the sickest patients on waitlists no matter where they live. Read the full story in The Washington Post.
By Martha Gershun
Five years ago, I donated my “spare” kidney at the Mayo Clinic to a woman I read about in the newspaper. Though living with only one kidney has risks, I was not particularly concerned about my own health. The clinic’s medical evaluation was extremely thorough, and I knew their highly conscientious selection committee would not approve me to be a living donor if they were even the slightest bit concerned the procedure would cause me long-term health problems. Furthermore, I was assured at every step of the process that if my remaining kidney should fail or be damaged, I would “go to the top of the transplant waiting list.” Read the full story in STAT.
By Dr. Beje Thomas
Finding a living donor can shorten your wait.
Over 30 million people in the US are estimated to have Chronic Kidney Disease and almost 50% of patients with severely reduced kidney function are unaware of it. Options for patients with kidney function less than 20% are either kidney transplantation or dialysis. However, the wait can be several years for a deceased donor kidney transplant with about 100,000 people on the wait list. Many patients do not live long enough to receive a transplant with 13 people on the wait list dying every day. Read the full article from MedStar Health.
A kidney transplant opens up a world of new responsibilities for someone with chronic kidney disease and their caregiver. Here are some ways to help.
By Rachael Robertson
More than one in seven adults in the United States have chronic kidney disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That means that 37 million people, most of whom are older than 50, are living with varying levels of chronic kidney disease. Read more in Everyday Health.