Actions to strengthen the U.S. organ donation and transplant system
Transparency: Increase transparency in OPO, hospital and system performance by making more comparative data available publicly
4
UNOS will undertake/propose the following action
Pending approval by the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), UNOS will publish three key reports on the web that are currently available only to professionals and make them more accessible for a broader public audience:
1.
Interactive OPO organ recovery and usage maps (by May 30, 2023; pending HRSA approval): These maps will display both OPO and hospital‐level recovery and transplant information based on donor characteristics selected by the user, as well as an organ usage map that displays which programs are transplanting the organs from those same donors.
2.
OPO System and Process Measures Dashboard (by Sept. 30, 2023; pending HRSA approval): This interactive dashboard will provide a variety of OPO data, enabling the public and professionals to compare OPO performance on key measures such as donors recovered, conversion rate and authorization rate.1
3.
OPTN Metrics Dashboard update (by Dec. 31, 2023; pending HRSA approval): Currently, this interactive dashboard allows the public to explore U.S. donation and transplant trends at the national and regional levels. The updated version will add the ability to explore data by individual OPO and transplant hospital. It also will add statistics relating to the non‐utilization of organs recovered for transplant and offered to a transplant hospital, as well as reported reasons for discard of organs recovered for transplant.2
4.
Allocation Policy Dashboards (publication date pending HRSA approval): The OPTN will convert policy monitoring reports to public dashboards for all organ allocation policies following implementation of the continuous distribution framework, beginning with lung allocation.3 The new policy monitoring dashboards will continue to report data on key equity in allocation measures but will also be able to monitor the impact of policy changes based on the geography of where transplant hospitals are located and if they are in rural or urban areas.
UNOS published the Action Agenda on Jan. 30, 2023, to reflect the needs of the broader donation and transplant community. As we progress on the actions and recommendations outlined, we will post updates here accordingly.
Footnotes
1 “New OPO System and Process Measures Dashboard now available.” https://unos.org/news/opo‐system‐and‐process‐measures‐dashboard/. 24 June 2022
2 “OPTN Metrics Dashboard.” https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/data/visual‐dashboards/optn‐metrics/.
3 “Continuous distribution: Creating a more fair and patient‐focused system for organ allocation.” https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/policies‐bylaws/a‐closer‐look/continuous‐distribution/
All stakeholders, including UNOS, share a common mission:
Get as many usable transplant organs as possible to patients who need them, fairly, equitably and efficiently.
All parts of the national system must be held accountable for making sure that this happens. The OPTN contractor must provide the highest level of service to patients and the greatest level of transparency to the public who has charged it with this lifesaving work.
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