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Our Organ Transplant System Isn’t the Failure It’s Made Out to Be

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— Upholding the system will save lives

by Peter G. Stock, MD, PhD, Nancy L. Ascher, MD, PhD, and John P. Roberts, MD 

Thanks to a robust network of hospitals, nonprofit organizations, and government support, the U.S. remains a leader in organ transplantation. This community, which is managed by United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), saves tens of thousands of lives every year. Despite this success, opponents of UNOS are advocating to dismantle the transplant system as we know it. Read the full article in MedPage Today.

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When minutes matter

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A look at the intersecting challenges in organ transportation, and a call for government and industry leaders to join the donation and transplant community in finding national-level solutions that ensure donor organs get safely to patients in need.

In late December 2022, as severe storms swept across the Midwest, a husband and father waited in a North Dakota hospital for a kidney. A lifesaving donor organ had been matched and was ready to be received by his transplant team—but 400 miles separated kidney from recipient, and a blizzard had cancelled all flights. Ultimately, thanks to a determined courier, a tow truck, a sheriff’s deputy whose own sister was a liver transplant recipient, and a snowplow clearing the way on a highway closed by driving snow and 50 mph winds, that gift of life was successfully delivered to its destination. Read more on UNOS.org.

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UNOS Advances Plan to Restructure Transplant Network Governance to Best Serve Patients

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Richmond, VA –News Direct– United Network for Organ Sharing

United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the mission-driven non-profit that serves as the nation’s Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), has recommended a plan to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to restructure the two organizations’ respective boards of directors and establish the OPTN as an independent non-profit entity. The move is intended to increase autonomy and transparency to better serve the nation’s transplant patients. Read more in Yahoo.com.

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Three-year monitoring report available for changes to adult heart allocation

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A new data report contains key measures of adult heart allocation based on policy changes implemented in October 2018.

The report notes several important trends since implementation, including:

  • Policy changes were successful in creating medical urgency statuses that prioritize candidates according to their risk of death while waiting for a transplant.

    Read the full article from UNOS.
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Transplanted Livers Can Survive Past 100

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These organs that live for more than a century could raise the age of potential donors, perhaps shortening waits for the life-saving procedure

Your liver could outlive you—even into the triple-digits, new research suggests.

Using the United Network for Organ Sharing’s organ transplant database, scientists assessed the ages of 253,406 livers transplanted between 1990 and 2022. Their analysis revealed that 25 of them had survived for more than 100 years.  Read the full article in Smithsonian Magazine.

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OPTN Board of Directors expected to require transplant hospitals to use race-neutral calculations in assessing patients

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Key points:
-OPTN Board to take up recommendation June 27

-If approved, implementation may occur within 30 days

-Transplant programs and labs should be aware of the pending action and consider options for transition

At its next in-person meeting, the Board of Directors of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) will consider a proposal to require transplant hospitals to use race-neutral calculations  when estimating a patient’s glomerular filtration rates (GFR). This proposed change aims to reduce health disparities and address inequities for Black kidney candidates by more accurately estimating their GFR values. The board will next meet in Richmond, Va., June 26-27, 2022. Read more from UNOS.

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