Novel Strategies for Innovating Deceased Donor Procurement

Despite many efforts to increase the size of the donor pool, there is a large and growing
disparity between the number of donor kidneys available for transplantation and the number of
patients on the transplant waiting list. Increasing the quality of currently available donor
kidneys would potentially improve the longevity of deceased donor kidney transplants by
years, thus increasing the rate of transplantation patients on the kidney transplant waiting
list. In addition, recipients of higher quality kidneys have shorter hospital stays and lower
total hospital charges. By innovating the organ donation process, such that deceased donor
kidneys are removed prior to the cessation of cardiac activity, rather than after, it may be
possible to improve the quality of the kidney before transplantation, resulting in improved
function after transplantation and increased longevity of these transplanted kidneys.
Further, this improved kidney quality is highly likely to translate to reduced need for renal
dialysis and other high-cost interventions, yielding lower total hospital charges. In this
study we will test the hypothesis that, through a cost-free technical innovation, the quality
of deceased donor kidneys could be improved significantly, saving thousands more lives per
year and reducing total health care expenditures on renal transplantation.