Tech companies such as Oracle, Google and Microsoft are looking toward a potential new disruption in healthcare: organ donation, Bloomberg reported Nov. 27.
President Joe Biden signed legislation in September allowing multiple contractors to operate the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network for the first time since it was formed in 1984, according to the story. OPTN is in need of a tech upgrade, observers say. The software "reminds me of the 1980s," Alvin Roth, PhD, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at Stanford (Calif.) University who studies kidney matching, told the news outlet.
Valeos, a nonprofit advocating for better technology for organ transplants, is collaborating with EHR vendor Oracle Health, Bloomberg reported. "Oracle is proud to volunteer our expertise as a design partner to Valeos to help bring their vision to life and hopefully make an impact on the outcomes of patients in need of transplants," Stephanie Trunzo, senior vice president of Oracle Health, said in a statement to the news outlet. Oracle said in a May blog post that its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure technology could improve OPTN.
Nearly 300 organizations attended an informational meeting on OPTN contracts earlier in November, according to the story. More than 100,000 people are on the organ waiting list.