Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Small Changes To Organ Procurement System Could Lead To More Life-Saving Transplants

November 20, 2017 By Indiana University

Slight changes to the system for allocating deceased-donor kidneys could result in higher rates of organ procurement and lead to more kidney transplants across the country, according to new research co-authored by an Indiana University Kelley School of Business professor.

“Any increase in supply will result in saved lives,” says Rodney P. Parker, an associate professor of operations management at Kelley. “The lists of patients awaiting a kidney transplantation are lengthy and growing. Many of these patients undergo expensive and inconvenient dialysis treatment while waiting.”

Parker and three other researchers studied three risk factors that explain the geographic differences in procuring deceased-donor kidneys across the United States: organ quality, the median wait time for donation and the degree of competition between transplantation centers in the area.

They found an expected annual increase in procured organs ranges from 58 (an increase of 0.5 percent of all procured kidneys) to 174 (an increase of 1.2 percent), depending on regional or national sharing.

(Image credit: Associated Press)

In 2015, 87,538 patients with end-stage renal disease died while on dialysis (16.3 percent of all dialysis patients are awaiting kidney transplants), and 18,805 kidney transplantations were performed that same year. The majority, 13,132, came from cadaveric donors.

More than 100,000 people are waiting for a kidney transplant in the U.S, with more than 3,000 patients added to the list each month, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

This study, which appears in the journal Production and Operations Management, is among the first to consider how to increase the supply of procured kidneys, rather than changing demand or considering different ways of allocating a fixed supply.

The researchers analyzed the effects of a 2014 policy change that allows lower-quality kidneys — considered the bottom 15 percent of available organs — to be immediately offered more widely in a region without seeking patients only in the local area.

They found that expanding the geographic range also could save lives of many who currently are less likely to receive a kidney based on where they live.

“The increase in supply is induced by the disparity in patient waiting times across different geographies,” Parker says. “Thus, patients in areas with longer waiting times will benefit from this increase without adversely affecting the waiting times in the source areas. Overall, the gap in median waiting times between areas will narrow.”

Parker and his colleagues concluded that transplant candidates living in less-populated areas may be more selective about the organ quality because waiting times are relatively short.

“When some cadaveric kidneys of lower quality become available, these kidneys may not be procured since the local patients can simply wait a short period for a superior quality kidney,” he says. “However, those lower-quality kidneys would be highly sought in other areas where the waiting times are much longer, such as in California and New York.

“Patients already at the top of the list in the more congested areas (which have longer median waiting times) will already likely have a short time for the next available kidney, so they will likely not accept a poorer quality kidney,” he adds. “However, someone who is further down the list in these areas may recognize that they face a lengthy wait and be willing to accept such a kidney rather than face the grim prospect of a four-hour dialysis treatment three times per week, not to mention the expense and diminished health.”

Cadaveric kidneys are initially made available to those living in one of 58 donor service areas around the country, before being then offered to those in a broader region of several donor service areas and, finally, nationally. Competition among 272 transplant programs across the country also contributes to outcomes.

Fourteen of the 58 donor service areas offered 129 or fewer kidneys in 2009, so if some organs are shared more broadly, then the expected increase in transplants could represent the addition of a small- to medium-sized donor service area.

Related Articles Read More >

Logos of Creo Medical and Intuitive
Creo Medical inks collaboration agreement with Intuitive
Lazurite ArthroFree wireless surgical camera system Minnetronix Medical
How Minnetronix Medical helped Lazurite with its wireless surgical camera
Medtronic Hugo robot-assisted surgery system
The road to a robot: Medtronic’s development process for its Hugo RAS system
A portrait of Stryker executive Siddarth Satish
How Stryker includes users for product design in the digital age

DeviceTalks Weekly.

May 20, 2022
DeviceTalks Boston Post-Game – Editors’ Top Moments, Insulet’s Eric Benjamin on future of Omnipod 5
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech