See your patient population more clearly with the UNOS SDOH Report

The factors that influence a person’s health go far beyond medical care. Where people live, work, learn and access resources can affect their ability to receive health care, follow treatment plans and improve their health. These factors, known as social determinants of health (SDOH), are important contributors to a patient’s health and outcomes.

The first quarterly UNOS Social Determinants of Health Report^SM was released in September 2025. It was created to help the transplant community better understand the social and economic characteristics of each center’s organ waiting list candidates and transplant recipients.

Understanding how SDOH affects patients can help make access to transplants more fair, improve patient outcomes, and prepare programs for future policies that may include SDOH measures.
The UNOS SDOH Report helps programs better understand the communities they serve, spot trends and potential differences in care, and improve quality.

Turning data into meaningful insights

The UNOS SDOH Report turns complex data into a clear visual so transplant center staff can easily identify patterns and trends. Instead of reviewing large amounts of raw data, users can quickly compare their programs with:

• Other transplant centers of similar size
• Programs within the same region
• National benchmarks

What’s included in the report?

The UNOS SDOH Report covers waiting lists, transplants and 1-year survival after transplant. A separate report is generated for each organ the center transplants.

The report uses information collected through standard OPTN forms, including Transplant Candidate Registration (TCR), Transplant Recipient Registration (TRR), and Transplant Recipient Follow-up (TRF) forms.

It also uses neighborhood-level socioeconomic information from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). This includes the median household income and the percentage of households living below the federal poverty level in a candidate’s or recipient’s ZIP code.

Together, this information gives transplant programs a better understanding of the populations they serve.

A center-specific view

Each transplant center receives its own unique report. While programs can see their center’s data alongside regional, size-based and national comparisons, they cannot view reports from other centers.

Easy to access through UNOS One

The SDOH Report is available through the Insights section on UNOS One^SM – the home to UNOS’ data products and services, including UNOS Tools^SM.

Reports are created four times a year, January, April, July and October, giving centers the ability to track changes over time as their patient populations evolve.

Who can use the report?

Any authorized transplant center staff member can access the report. It may be particularly helpful for quality improvement teams, transplant program administrators and clinical leaders who want to understand their patient populations and find ways to improve.

The report does not replace clinical data or performance metrics. Instead, it adds an additional perspective that can support discussions about patient access, health equity and outcomes.

Why use the report?

As the transplant community continues to study how social and economic factors affect patient outcomes, knowing more about your patient population can help support fair access to lifesaving transplants for all.