in focus
UNOS collaborated with eight global transplant organizations and societies on four COVID-19 organ donation and transplant town hall webinars that have received more than 25,000 views.
Global organ donation and transplantation organizations acted swiftly to share real-world experiences.
As COVID-19 cases began increasing globally, conversations among health care providers about the pandemic’s potential impact on transplant started to emerge.
Within a few days, organ donation and transplant communities from around the world assembled to collaborate on a webinar series sharing real-world, global experiences for the organ donation and transplant community. Along with United Network for Organ Sharing, participating organizations included:
- American Society of Transplantation
- Association of Organ Procurement Organizations
- American Society of Transplant Surgeons
- North American Transplant Coordinators Organization
- United Network for Organ Sharing
- Canadian Society of Transplantation
- European Society of Transplantation
- International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation
- The Transplant Society
The societies launched their first live, collaborative webinar “COVID-19: Organ Donation and Transplant Town Hall,” on March 23, and the 1,000 available seats filled up within a few hours. Collaboration continued over the following weeks with three additional webinars, including the most recent webinar on May 11, covering topics ranging from:
- Presentation, diagnosis, treatment and prevention
- Getting to transplant
- Operational issues
- Screening donors and candidates
- Protecting the workforce
- Ethical issues
The societies aren’t done yet, with future plans to produce more collaborative webinars on navigating COVID-19, as well as topics unrelated to the pandemic.
Read more about the COVID-19 pandemic and collaboration within the transplant community.
In focus
HOPE Act impact continues at five-year milestone
More than 220 transplants have been performed to date through the HOPE Act.
LifeShare of Oklahoma increases DCD donor recovery during COVID-19
DCD recoveries are up across the country as OPOs build effective practices.
Using registries to improve outcomes and transplant management
UNOS builds and hosts registries enabling OPOs and transplant centers to address issues such as treatment, payment, quality improvement, benchmarking and clinical research.
Preserving candidate wait time during temporary inactivation due to COVID-19
Altering organ acceptance criteria protects candidates at risk of COVID-19 from losing accrued wait time.
