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Projects

Increasing Kidney Transplant by Reducing Discards

Providing transplant physicians with better information on kidney quality and expected outcomes to inform decision-making and reduce the risk of discard.

Executive Summary

In 2015, nearly 31,000 organ transplants were performed in the US. As impressive as these numbers seem, the demand is even greater with more than 121,000 patients currently awaiting an organ transplant. Due to this disparity, approximately 22 of those waiting die each day.

Each year approximately 4000 organs recovered from deceased donors (nearly 3000 kidneys) were not used for transplant and instead were discarded.

This project proposes to analyze the underlying causes of the high rate of kidney discards and identify tools to provide transplant physicians and patients with better information on kidney quality and expected outcomes to inform decision-making and reduce the risk of discard. Based on input from multiple end-users and stakeholders these may include improved
information-sharing, data analysis tools, and proposed changes to organ transplant systems and policies.

The goal is to increase the number of successful kidney transplants and reduce kidney transplant waiting times.

A project supported by the: HHS Ignite Accelerator

Team Members

Bob Walsh (Project Lead), Division of Transplantation, HRSA
Jim Bowman, Division of Transplantation, HRSA
Monica Lin, Division of Transplantation, HRSA

Milestones

March 2016: Project selected into the HHS Ignite Accelerator
April 2016: Time in the Accelerator began
July 2016: Time in the Accelerator ends
August 2016: Prototype decision-making tool under development

Project Sponsor

Melissa Greenwald, Acting Director, Division of Transplantation, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)