Organ procurement organizations are opening up 10 years worth of data, enabling the first analysis on how the country's organ donation process may be improved, the Federation of American Scientists said Oct. 5.
Five details:
1. The seven organ procurement organizations who have agreed to open up their data are: Donor Network West, Life Connection of Ohio, LiveOn New York, Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency, Mid-America Transplant, OurLegacy and Southwest Transplant Alliance.
2. Scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Healthy ML Lab and the Wilson Lab in Cambridge, Mass., are leading the data analysis effort, called the Organ Procurement Organization Innovation Cohort. It will make public data on organ procurement organization performance, operations, finances, governance and more.
3. The analysis aims to identify and solve inefficiencies in the organ donation process to increase the number of transplants completed, as well as address health disparities embedded in the process.
4. HHS data indicates improvements in organ procurement practices could increase the number of transplants performed per year by at least 7,000.
5. Marzyeh Ghassemi, PhD, is leading the analysis efforts at MIT's Healthy ML Lab. At the Wilson Lab, Ashia Wilson, PhD, is overseeing the research.
"Working with this data is a first step towards making better decisions about how to save more lives through organ procurement and transplantation," Dr. Ghassemi said. "We have an opportunity to use machine learning to understand potential issues and lead improvements in transparency and equity."