On February 1, 2015, several policy changes were made to conform to the 2013 PHS Guideline for Reducing HIV, HBV, and HCV through Organ Transplantation. The OPTN’s Ad Hoc Disease Transmission Advisory Committee (DTAC) reviewed Guideline recommendations after they were released and the Board approved the policy changes in November 2014.
Requirements apply to both deceased and living donors and address a variety of topics including:
- lab testing of potential donors and recipients, including nucleic acid testing (NAT),
- collection, storage, tracking and reporting of donor and recipient specimens,
- informed consent of potential recipients, and
- donor risk assessment and screening.
A webinar was held on Feb. 3 to explain these OPTN policy changes. Go to UNOS Connect to access a recording of the session. It is located in the patient safety section of the course catalog.
