INSIGHTS
Deceased donor kidney recipient ethnicity reflects waiting list
Ethnicity of deceased donor kidney recipients essentially the same as represented on the kidney waitlist
Based on OPTN data as of Jan. 23, 2019.
Recent data confirm that deceased donor kidney transplant rates for African American, Hispanic and Caucasian recipients continue to be proportional to the ethnicity of the waiting list. This improvement in equity became apparent after the implementation of the Kidney Allocation System (KAS) in December 2014. KAS introduced several policy changes intended to increase equity in access to kidney transplants and promote effective utilization of available organs.
The policy changes with particular relevance for minority candidates included:
- Beginning transplant waiting time from date of first dialysis, not of listing with a transplant hospital.
- Allowing blood type B candidates to be considered for kidney offers from donors with blood subtype A2.
- Increasing kidney transplant priority for candidates with high immune sensitization.
Read more about how policy changes have led to improvements in KAS.
KAS Turns Four: The State of Deceased Donor Kidney Allocation in the U.S.
Stewart DE, Wilk AR, Klassen DK. OBM Transplantation 2019;3(1):17.