Kidney paired donation pilot program to begin matching in October

Published on: Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), operated under federal contract by United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), will soon perform the first match run of a national pilot program to facilitate kidney paired donation (KPD) transplants. The match run is intended to identify medically compatible pairs of potential living kidney donors and candidates, in cases where the potential donor was not able to match with his or her original intended recipient.

"In the last three years, kidney paired donation has made possible more than 700 transplants nationwide that otherwise wouldn't have taken place," said OPTN/UNOS President Charles Alexander, RN, M.S.N., M.B.A. "We believe many more transplants are possible. Through this national pilot program, we want to see whether having a national pool of potential donors and candidates will provide more opportunities for lives to be saved and enhanced."

A total of 77 living kidney donor transplant programs will participate in the initial pilot phase. Each program is affiliated with one of four coordinating centers, which will work directly with UNOS on administrative issues such as donor/recipient applications, logistical arrangements and data submission. The coordinating centers and affiliated transplant programs are listed below.

Alliance for Paired Donation
Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA
Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX
Children's Medical Center of Dallas, Dallas, TX
Clarian Health-Methodist/IU/Riley, Indianapolis, IN
Erie County Medical Center, Buffalo, NY
Florida Hospital Medical Center, Orlando, FL
Johnson City Medical Center Hospital, Johnson City, TN
The Lankenau Hospital, Wynnewood, PA
Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center, Portland, OR
Medical City Dallas Hospital, Dallas, TX
Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA
Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston, TX
Methodist Dallas Medical Center, Dallas, TX
Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX
Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton, OH
Oklahoma University Medical Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Centura Porter Adventist Hospital, Denver, CO
Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center, Denver, CO
Scripps Green Hospital, La Jolla, CA
St. John Hospital and Medical Center, Detroit, MI
St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston, TX
St. Mary's Health Care, Grand Rapids, MI
Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA
University of Alabama Hospital, Birmingham, AL
University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA
University of Colorado Hospital/Health Science Center, Aurora, CO
University Hospital - St. Paul, Dallas, TX
University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI
University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, OH
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, WA
North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Winston-Salem, NC
Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC

Johns Hopkins Hospital
Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, MN
Avera McKennan Hospital, Sioux Falls, SD
Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, MO
Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC
Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN
Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI
Integris Baptist Medical Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, VA
Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD
Medcenter One Health Systems, Bismarck, ND
MeritCare Hospital, Fargo, ND
Rochester Methodist Hospital (Mayo Clinic), Rochester, MN
St. Mary's Hospital (Mayo Clinic), Rochester, MN
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA
University of Maryland Medical System, Baltimore, MD
University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, Minneapolis, MN
University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill, NC

New England Program for Kidney Exchange
Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA
Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA
Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, Lebanon, NH
Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ
Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Lahey Clinic Medical Center, Burlington, MA
Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Newark, NJ
Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Camden, NJ
Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA
Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, NJ
St. Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, NJ
University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, MA
Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT

University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center/California Pacific Medical Center
California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, CA
Intermountain Medical Center, Murray, UT
New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY
Primary Children's Medical Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA
University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
University of Utah Medical Center, Salt Lake City, UT

Match runs will be conducted every four to five weeks with information on potential living donors and candidates supplied by participating transplant programs. Each transplant program must document that potential donors have completed a rigorous medical screening and evaluation process, and that they have provided detailed informed consent for donation and for potential participation in a national match run.

In addition to OPTN funding, the pilot project has been made possible by charitable support and in-kind donations from Carnegie Mellon University; the New England Program for Kidney Exchange; EDS Consulting; Sommer Gentry, Ph.D.; and numerous private charitable foundations.

Anyone interested in participating in the pilot program as a transplant candidate or potential living donor should contact one of the participating transplant programs. Each transplant program will make individual medical decisions about accepting living donors or candidates or whether they are appropriate for matching through the pilot program.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) is operated under contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Division of Transplantation by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). The OPTN brings together medical professionals, transplant recipients and donor families to develop organ transplantation policy.