Federal health agency reveals real-time display of organ transplants performed irregularly
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a public dashboard to shed light on organ donations, marking a significant step towards addressing long-standing issues within the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).
The dashboard, built using Tableau, provides graphs showing a steady increase in the share of transplants occurring out of order and a slight increase in instances where organs aren't used. This move comes after a February New York Times investigation revealed that line skipping occurred in nearly 20% of organ allocations over the previous year.
HRSA Administrator Tom Engels stated that the dashboard is a step towards ensuring a fair, transparent, and accountable process for organ transplants. The dashboard can be filtered by organ procurement organizations and is current through June of this year.
Dr. Joel T. Adler, a transplant surgeon and coauthor of several articles on the trend of increasing allocations out of order, stated that the new dashboard is generally consistent with their work and is a good step towards public transparency. Adler, however, expressed concern that out-of-sequence organ allocation might favor certain groups of patients, potentially putting others at a disadvantage.
In response to the growing concerns, Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Wyden, who have long championed oversight of the organ procurement system, have demanded more information about the phenomenon from HRSA and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They have also requested more information in recent years from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) regarding unusual organ allocation practices.
Research by Adler and others on kidney donations suggests other strategies might be more effective at mitigating nonuse. Adler proposes that tracking and publicly reporting patient-centric outcomes could be a useful addition to the dashboard. This could include outcomes for patients who are skipped in the allocation process.
In addition to the public dashboard, HRSA is also working on other improvement efforts, including a process for reporting misconduct and proposing requirements for organ procurement. These initiatives aim to further enhance transparency and accountability within the OPTN system.
Recent reports by HRSA have highlighted concerns about organ procurement organizations ignoring signs of life incompatible with organ donation and instances where patients may not have been technically deceased when procurement started. The HHS is working diligently to address these issues and ensure that the organ donation and transplantation process is as fair and efficient as possible.
