Community results of winter 2022 kidney and pancreas prioritization exercises now available

Published on: Friday, April 22, 2022

Two reports summarizing feedback gathered during the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) winter 2022 public comment period are now available.

During this period, the community was encouraged to share feedback related to factors involved in both kidney and pancreas allocation. To collect community input, special online prioritization exercises informed by a multi-criteria decision-making methodology called analytic hierarchy prioritization (AHP) were developed. The AHP exercises were open throughout public comment, which closed March 23. A request for feedback on continuous distribution of kidneys and pancreata was also open for comment. Gathering stakeholder feedback is a critical part of transplant policy development, so patients were encouraged to provide their input in the exercises and in public comment.

The report of kidney results was presented to the Kidney Transplantation Committee on April 1, and the report of pancreas results was presented to the Pancreas Transplantation Committee on April 11. The reports are accessible on the kidney and pancreas continuous distribution webpage along with more information about each project’s status. The committees will consider this community feedback as they continue the policy development process. The OPTN Board of Directors will discuss the request for feedback at its next meeting in June. Any final proposal or proposals must comply with the OPTN Final Rule and be approved by the OPTN Board of Directors.