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UNOS applauds president’s FY2025 budget request
Statement applauding President Biden’s budget proposal which includes $67 million to fund HRSA’s OPTN Modernization Initiative
UNOS expands leadership team
Tina Rhoades promoted to director of patient and member relations
UNOS statement on member vote for board independence
Statement about member vote to ratify the UNOS Board of Directors’ vote for board independence
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Kidney – Pancreas
Predicting the future to help patients today
New tool offers never-before-seen insights on the impact that accepting or declining an organ offer could have on a patient.
UNOS supports the Living Donor Protection Act
UNOS is proud to continue supporting the Living Donor Protection Act, providing vital protections for living organ donors.
New milestone reached in kidney donation and transplant
For the first time, more than 25,000 kidney transplants were performed in a single year
Liver – Intestine
More than 15,000 liver transplants performed in first two years of acuity circles policy
Two-year monitoring shows many states had volume changes within 10 percent of previous policy.
National collaborative focusing on organ offer acceptance to launch at the end of January 2023
More than 80 transplant programs are participating in the project; a virtual option for the in-person kickoff event is available to the entire community.
UNOS launches first national liver paired donation pilot program
The UNOS LPD pilot program aims to increase the number of living liver donations.
Heart – Lung
New elements added for reporting primary graft dysfunction in heart
New data elements have been added to the Transplant Recipient Registration (TRR) form in TIEDI® for all adult and pediatric heart and heart-lung patients
Research in focus: examining organ offers
Three recent studies from UNOS researchers examine offer acceptance practices and impact of Offer Filters tool.
Coming soon: Simultaneous heart-kidney and lung-kidney allocation changes
Once the policy goes into effect, OPOs must offer required shares that are displayed on the match run.
VCA
System notice: VCA distribution to be based on fixed distance circle of 500 nautical miles
Effective Thursday, June 18, 2020, VCA offers will first be made to compatible transplant candidates listed at VCA programs within a radius of 500 nautical miles of the donor. This replaces the previous distribution unit, which had been the OPTN region of the donor hospital.
Pre-implementation system notice: VCA distribution to be based on fixed distance circle of 500 nautical miles
Effective June 18, vascular composite allograft offers will first be made to compatible transplant candidates listed at VCA programs within a radius of 500 nautical miles of the donor.
Newly available VCA resources
The Division of Transplantation (DoT) recently created multiple new resources to help your organization increase public awareness of Vascular Composite Allografts (VCA).
Improving the system together
Kidney committee leadership discusses increasing geographic equity in access to kidney transplant
A result of two years of public comment and policy development, the new distance-based approach prioritizes patients.
Trailblazing physician broke barriers to become nation’s first Black female transplant surgeon
Dr. Velma Scantlebury-White, who has performed more than 2,000 transplants in her career, says there have been significant changes in terms of achieving equity access in the allocation system for minority patients, but some issues persist.
New standards ensure pediatric candidates receive the best care possible
More than 260 pediatric transplant programs meet recently updated requirements designed to meet the specific needs of children
UNet
Implementation notice: Lung policy modification for blood type
Effective Sept. 27, 2023, the points assigned for blood type in lung allocation have been updated
Pre-implementation notice: Lung policy modification for blood type
Effective Sept. 27, 2023, the points assigned for blood type in lung allocation will be updated.
Impella 5.5 devices can now be reported in Waitlist and TIEDI
New device option added to menu
“… policy is the living, breathing expression of group values.”
Martha Pavlakis, M.D. on new policies that put patients first
Policy changes
Public Comment open from July 27 through Sept. 19, 2023
The OPTN is offering 14 items for review.
Updated liver allocation policy regarding HCC criteria in effect
Policy terminology updated for consistency with imaging standards
Improvements to MELD and PELD now in effect
Resources and education available for patients and clinicians
Policy monitoring
Updated 15–month monitoring report available for liver, intestine policy
Geographic variability in median urgency scores at transplant has decreased.
Monitoring report available for lower respiratory testing of lung donors
Policy that requires SARS-CoV-2 lower respiratory testing of lung donors went into effect May 27.
Monitoring report available for pancreas allocation
Report addresses the first two months of data following implementation of 250 nautical mile circles.
Learn: Collaborative improvement and educational resources
IN FOCUS
7,000 organs tracked with UNOS Organ Tracking Service
30% of all OPOs use the UNOS Organ Tracking Service to monitor organs in transit.
Collaboration
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Education
TMF 2023 presenter Jesse Schold, Ph.D., on reducing health care disparities in the organ transplant system
TMF session to focus on improving access to transplantation through collaboration.
New animation for patients explains the lung Composite Allocation Score (CAS)
New patient-friendly video explains the factors that will determine lung allocation in the continuous distribution framework.
Effective practices
Learn about collaborative improvement projects
Learn about issues impacting patients, donors, donor families, and the national system. Issues and advocacy
Perspectives
Setting travel safety standards for organ recovery teams
Transplant and OPO team members continue to be injured in ground transportation accidents, resulting in the loss of productive clinical years. Many of these incidents are avoidable. New methods of organ transport are needed.
Nicole Medwick from CORE discusses first national donor image sharing hub
UNOS begins phased release of UNet Image Sharing to organ procurement organizations across the country.
Scientists find evidence of recipient factor in predicting donor ESRD
UNOS researchers studied post-donation end-stage renal disease in white first-degree related living kidney donors in the U.S. between 1994 and 2018. The study is the first of its kind to adjust for recipient factors.
Leadership news
A lasting legacy: Lisa Schaffner honored posthumously with newly renamed award
The late UNOS director of public communications helped establish an award recognizing advocates in 2010. Now, the same award has been renamed to honor its very first champion.
In Memoriam: Pono Shim
He is widely honored for his service and compassion.
HRSA releases Request for Information for market research to support the next OPTN contract
Responses due by May 9, 2022.
“The dozens of topics presented at TMF shared one thing—our community’s dedication to doing everything we can to constantly improve the system and better serve the patients who rely on us.”
Patient safety
Voluntary recall addresses Vecuronium Bromide
If your institution has stock from any of the affected lots, please contact your supplier.
Resource lists lower respiratory tract testing available
Tests authorized by the FDA to analyze lower respiratory tract specimens.
AST Innovation Award presented to DTAC
Committee honored for big ideas and out of the box thinking that has made a significant impact on transplantation.
Transplant hospital
Coming soon: changes to liver-kidney nautical mile threshold
The simultaneous liver-kidney (SLK) allocation required share will change from 250 nautical miles to 500 nautical miles for eligible adult candidates.
UNOS researchers present studies at 2023 American Transplant Congress
Twenty-two UNOS staff members presented research from 42 studies at the 2023 American Transplant Congress, addressing topics including social determinants of health, offer-acceptance practices, and the impacts of allocation-policy changes.
Now in effect: Changes to security personnel requirements and reporting
These changes were approved by the OPTN Board of Directors at their June 26, 2023 meeting.
OPO
UNet user audit begins June 12
Starting June 12, site security administrators will have four weeks to conduct a required audit of their UNet users. It must be completed by July 10.
Important information about attachments in DonorNet
Starting Nov. 1, users will no longer be able to attach files to donor records in DonorNet® via email or fax. Users will need to utilize the other tools available to upload attachments to donor records.
UNOS statement on the 2023 OPO Public Performance Report by CMS
UNOS supports working with CMS to increase accountability and improve the performance of our nation’s 56 OPOs.
Histocompatibility
Coming June 17: HLA equivalency table update and addition of DPB1 epitopes
These changes will occur in DonorNet®, Waitlist℠, TIEDI® and KPD℠ applications.
Labs gain access to Data Services beginning Sept. 11
Beginning Sept. 11, UNet security administrators will now be able to give laboratory staff permission to access the Data Services portal in UNet.
Stories and tributes
Each person touched by organ donation transplant has a unique story. Threads of hope connect them. Find videos, stories and tributes