Donation service areas removed from thoracic allocation system

Published on: Wednesday, January 15, 2020

On Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020, several OPTN policy updates were implemented to eliminate the use of donation service areas, or DSAs, from heart transplantation and replace them with a 250 nautical mile circle. Additionally, the term “zone” has been removed from thoracic (heart and lung) allocation policies and replaced with the actual distances in nautical miles between donor hospital and transplant hospitals where candidates are listed. (Previous policy action in 2017 removed DSA from lung allocation). In addition, policy language was removed regarding prioritization of sensitized candidates within a DSA.

All of the policy updates are included in this policy notice, reflecting actions the OPTN Board of Directors approved at its June 2019 meeting.