Organ Donation in the US

UNOS Organ Donation Research for Policy Planning

This multi-stakeholder project explored the many factors affecting the actual deceased organ donation and usage and what could be the maximum capacity of deceased donors.  The project was sponsored by Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), governmental agencies under US Department of Health and Human Services.

UNOS collaborators convened fifty world-class surgical, judicial, governmental, and research stakeholders to identify the complex causes related to the growing demand, chronic shortage, and opportunities to improve system. A system dynamics model was developed to understand the effects of various strategies (see paper referenced below), and a subgroup of ten researchers synthesized and triangulated many data sources and analyses to create estimates for deceased donation potential for the future. The Collaborative facilitated the many project meetings large and small, provided project management, analysis and report writing.  Throughout the steps of this project, a great deal of data was shared by stakeholders, many contributed to policy initiatives currently under review. (See Learn More.) Additionally, a paper was published about the conclusions derived from the simulation modeling:

Deceased Donor Potential for Organ Transplantation: A System Dynamics Framework
By Gary B. Hirsch, Khalid Saeed, Karl J. McCleary, and Kevin A. Myer
International System Dynamics Society 30th annual conference; St. Gallen Switzerland, July 22-26, 2012