Andrew Placona, UNOS data science manager
Nearly 20 percent of kidneys recovered from deceased donors are not transplanted, while approximately 13 end-stage renal disease patients die each day awaiting a transplant in the U.S., according to data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.
In November Andrew Placona, United Network for Organ Sharing’s first data science manager, published an article in the American Journal of Transplantation that proves the concept that an innovative natural language processing model could improve upon existing predictive organ utilization models. “Given that kidney utilization is a concern to our community, we gambled on the possibility that the free text data contained in deceased donor registration forms could help us understand the kidney utilization issue in ways that had not previously been characterized,” he said. “We found that these data have potential value.”
Read more about this innovative approach to improving the nationwide kidney utilization rate.
