The OPTN Board of Directors has unanimously approved a new policy aimed at increasing the number of patients who receive lifesaving kidney transplants by improving organ allocation. The policy focuses on using the OPTN offer filter tool to ensure that offers of donor kidneys are quickly sent to transplant programs that are most likely to accept them. Currently, only 60% of kidney programs have at least one filter turned on, but the new “opt out” policy will automatically turn on offer filters specific to each program, based on their acceptance history. The use of offer filters is a strategy to help Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) allocate organs efficiently and ensure that transplant programs only receive offers that they have a history of considering and would legitimately consider. This policy is the first phase in a potential transition to mandatory offer filters recommended by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The aim is to increase the rate of organ acceptance and decrease organ non-use, ultimately saving more lives.
In addition to the newly approved policy, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) has implemented other efforts to increase organ utilization. Predictive Analytics utilizes waitlist and transplant candidate data to project when patients will receive additional offers and their likelihood of survival without the initial offer. Transplant Vision (TxVx) uses augmented reality technology to digitally reconstruct recovered kidneys, standardizing high-quality organ imagery for evaluation purposes. The Offer Acceptance Collaborative brings together transplant professionals from more than 80 programs to share effective practices and improve organ offer evaluation and acceptance practices. UNet Image Sharing, a digital platform developed by UNOS, allows organ procurement organizations to securely share medical imaging studies, enabling quicker decision-making by surgeons and increasing organ acceptance rates. These efforts aim to maximize the utilization potential of each organ and increase the number of successful kidney transplants, ultimately saving more lives.
