Lack of Unified System Hampers Kidney Transplant Efforts

New York Times | Kevin Sack

Many of the most prominent names in the field of kidney transplantation agree that the way to maximize the number of transplants through paired exchanges is to create a single, nationwide registry. That, they note, would vastly expand the pool of potential matches among transplant candidates who have willing but incompatible donors.

And yet, more than a decade after the first organ swap in the United States, the transplant world remains disjointed, with competing private registries operating with little government oversight or regulation. The federal government started a paired exchange pilot project in late 2010, but it lags far behind nonprofits like the National Kidney Registry in making successful matches.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/health/lack-of-unified-system-hampers-kidney-transplants.html