Join the global call for change at DLE--Invitation to Cairo

  After being invited to this week's International Transplant Week in Egypt, , I was invited to invite others.

 (To hear my very brief invitation, which the conference published on Instagram, you may have to click on the speaker symbol in the lower right corner of the image.)

 

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Are transplants too scarce, or not scarce enough? A surprising debate about India

 India, now the most populous country in the world, does the third highest number of kidney transplants in the world (although their rate of transplantation per million population is quite low).  So transplants are nevertheless very scarce in India compared to the need, which is the situation worldwide.

Earlier this year, however, a paper by three veteran (non-Indian) transplant professionals who have headed large organizations expressed repugnance for the volume of transplants in India, and the fact that it depends mostly on living donor transplantation (LDT), suggesting it can be viewed as "both alarming and reprehensible."  Their paper's title makes it clear how they view it. 

Domínguez-Gil, Beatriz, Francis L. Delmonico, and Jeremy R. Chapman. "Organ transplantation in India: NOT for the common good." Transplantation 109, no. 2, February, 2025: 240-242. 

"The field of organ transplantation has evolved very differently across the world under the influence of different national healthcare financing systems. Healthcare is, in most countries, financed by taxation and thus through governmental budgets, in combination with private funds, mostly through contributory health insurance systems (eg, Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, South America, and the United States). But across much of Asia, tertiary healthcare services, such as transplantation, are almost entirely dependent on the private finances of individuals. The impressive growth in Indian organ transplantation has been accomplished in for-profit hospitals, which have expanded Indian transplantation into 807 facilities, mostly associated with the major corporate hospital chains.6 Organ transplantation, in a part of the world where one-fifth of all people live, is thus largely not for the common good, but a treatment available for those with ample monetary resources." 

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 This was followed by a firm rebuttal by distinguished Indian transplant professionals.  Their title makes their view equally clear:

Rela, Mohamed, Ashwin Rammohan, Vivek Kute, Manish R. Balwani, and Arpita Ray Chaudhury. "Organ Transplantation in India: INDEED, for the Common Good!." Transplantation 109, no. 6 (2025): e340-e342. 

 "We were deeply concerned by the article “Organ Transplantation in India: NOT for the Common Good” by Domínguez-Gil et al,  which we felt provided an unfairly critical view of the current state of organ transplantation in India. We aim to provide a point-by-point rebuttal based on actual figures and ground-reality rather than tabloid-press articles as cited by the authors.
 

"It is true that in the past 5 y, there has been an extraordinary growth in the number of transplantations in India (more than those achieved over several decades by European countries). While it is natural to be wary of this astronomical increase in transplant numbers, the authors’ assumption that this growth is likely nefarious reflects an outdated western mindset, rather than a true understanding of over 2 decades of massively coordinated effort by the Government of India, transplant professionals and all other stakeholders in the country. 

...

" The development of LDT has been presented with a negative connotation. This shows a scant understanding of the geo-socio-political idiosyncrasies prevalent in the Asian region, and unlike the west, its conventional dependence on LDT.

 ...

"The authors have further confused LDT and deceased donor transplantation with regards to foreigners having access to organs in India. The authors’ accusation of deceased donor organs being preferentially allocated to foreigner is presumptuous at best. The current organ allocation system under the aegis of the Government of India and state-wise organ transplant governing bodies is a very transparent process—and is reserved for Indian nationals.

...

" Transplant tourism being equated with organ commerce is erroneous, the authors’ fail to understand that many poor countries find India a more financially viable destination to get a transplant than countries in the west. Even affordable Governments in the middle east are moving to the east for transplantation, where the ministries have a direct tie-up with transplant units. 

"While it should be conceded that transplantation in India may not be available to all, true social upliftment necessitates broader initiatives beyond just immediate transplant availability: that of addressing poverty. Nonetheless, access to transplants for the underprivileged has greatly improved over the past decade. There are several public sector hospitals in the country that routinely provide transplantation services. In 2023, in the state of Tamil Nadu, 35.1% of all deceased donor renal transplants were performed for free in public sector hospitals (Table 1). 5 While traditionally, the private pay-from-pocket healthcare has been only for those with the resources, the central and several state governments (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, etc) sponsor an all-inclusive healthcare state insurance for the poor, which includes transplantation at any approved private hospital in the state; which includes LDT.

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I'm on my way to a conference in Cairo that is motivated in part by concern that healthcare in low and middle income countries has been impeded by some of the international healthcare organizations' lack of understanding or empathy for their situations. 

Economics and CS (AI+ML) in Ithaca in June: call for papers

 Here's the announcement and call for papers from the Econometric Society

2026 ESIF Economics and AI+ML Meeting

June 16 - 17, 2026
Ithaca, United States

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2026 ESIF Economics and AI+ML Meeting (ESIF-AIML2026)

June 16-17, 2026
Cornell University Department of Computer Science and Department of Economics

We are pleased to announce the Economics and AI+ML of the Econometric Society Interdisciplinary Frontiers (ESIF) conferences. The 2026 ESIF Economics and AI+ML Meeting (ESIF-AIML2026) hosted by Cornell University Department of Computer Science, Department of Economics, and Center for Data Science for Enterprise and Society, will take place on June 16-17, 2026, in Ithaca, NY.

The Program Committee co-Chairs and host organizers are Francesca Molinari and Éva Tardos, from Cornell University.

Important dates

Submissions open: November 3, 2025
Paper Submission Period: November 3, 2025 – January 17, 2026
Decision Notification Deadline: March 22, 2026
Registration Period (for presenters) March 22, 2026-April 5, 2026
Preliminary Program Announcement: April 26, 2026

Plenary Lectures

David Blei
Columbia University

Mingming Chen
Google

Annie Liang
Northwestern University

Sendhil Mullainathan
MIT

Aaron Roth
University of Pennsylvania

Stefan Wager
Stanford University

 

 

Game theory in Brazil, July 26-Aug2: Call for papers

 Marilda Sotomayor forwards the following call for papers:

Game Theory scholar. 
It is a great pleasure to invite you to participate in the 4TH INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON GAME THEORY AND ECONOMIC APPLICATIONS, to be held at the University of São Paulo, from July 26 to August 2, 2026.
The workshop will offer the participants the opportunity to interact with some of the most prominent researchers in Game Theory. We expect to have over 340 participants, with a majority of young scholars and including 5 Nobel Laureates: Robert Aumann, Roger Myerson, Alvin Roth, Robert Wilson and Paul Milgrom. 
The week-long event will consist of minicourses, conferences and contributed papers sessions. The courses will start at an introductory level and will reach the frontiers of current research. Please direct questions to iwgtea2026@usp.br. 
To participate in the workshop, it is necessary to register on our website: https://www.iwgtea.fea.usp.br/, where you can also find more information on the conference. 
Limited financial aid for travel and accommodation expenses of up to 100 students or young researchers (who got his/her PhD in the last three years) will be provided. The candidate should refer to the information provided on our website. 
If you are interested in submitting a paper for presentation you should register on our website and submit it through the appropriate link. An extended abstract (up to 3 pages), or, if possible, a full paper, written in English, as well a short abstract (up to 200 words), are required. This paper will be made available for download on our website if your submission is accepted. Presentations should be made in English, the official language of the workshop. Acceptable formats for the files are PDF, PS and Word. Articles in all areas of Game Theory and its applications are welcome. 
 Please note that the deadline for paper submissions and remittance of the documents required to the young scholars is March 15, 2026. The selected candidates and articles will be announced by April 15, 2026. 
Early registration fee payment should be received by April 30, 2026. A late charge of 40% will be added after this date. Only those who have paid the registration fee by May 15, 2026, will be included in the program. The schedule of talks will be announced by the end of May.
We look forward to seeing you in São Paulo!
The Organizers
M. Sotomayor (USP), M. Bugarin (UNB), W. Maldonado (USP), R. Corbi (USP)
 

International Transplant Week in Egypt, 2025

 I'm preparing to spend next week in Cairo at the Donate Life Egypt 2025 International Transplant Week, where I'll give a talk on Thursday.  But much of my preparation is for Wednesday, when something potentially much more exciting is scheduled.

 

 

Wednesday (Nov. 12) will be devoted to an attempt to reach a new Global Consensus on Emerging Ethical Frontiers in Transplantation: Innovations & Global Collaboration

I'll be involved in Working Group 4: Ethical Frameworks for Regulated International Collaboration
 

Co-Chairs

    Prof. Alvin Roth — Stanford University, USA
    Dr. Michael Rees — University of Toledo, USA
    Prof. Marleen Eijkholt — Leiden University Medical Centre, Netherlands

Scientific Committee Liaison / Editorial Lead

    Dr. Ahmed Elsabbagh — University of Pittsburgh, USA<

Members (alphabetical)

    Dr. Ali Obaidli — Department of Health, Abu Dhabi, UAE
    Dr. David Thomson — University of Cape Town, South Africa
    Dr. Frederike Ambagtsheer — Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
    Dr. Gustavo Ferreira — University of São Paulo, Brazil
    Prof. Ignazio Marino — Thomas Jefferson University, Italy/USA
    Dr. Juan Navarro — Leiden University Medical Centre, Netherlands
    Dr. Lucrezia Furian — University of Padua, Italy
    Dr. Manuel Rodríguez — UNAM, Mexico (President of SPLIT)
    Dr. Mignon McCulloch — University of Cape Town, South Africa
    Dr. Nikolas Stratopoulos — Leiden UMC, Netherlands
    Dr. Vivek Kute — IKDRC-ITS, India
    Dr. Wendy Spearman — University of Cape Town, South Africa

It may be a long shot, but my hope is we can reach some consensus to replace the longstanding dogma that countries should be self-sufficient in transplantation.
 

School choice and performance gaps in England: a report by Burgess, Cantillon, Greaves and Cavallo

 Estelle Cantillon writes to tell me about her new report with Simon Burgess, Ellen Greaves, and  Mariagrazia Cavallo  on changing the priority criteria in secondary school admissions in England.

"Our starting point was the equity of access to effective schools in England and the role of priority criteria in this regard. England is special in that secondary schools can choose their own priority criteria (within guidelines). Many schools choose geographical criteria or tie-breaking rules, and we show that this is reducing the set of effective schools that disadvantaged pupils have access to. We explore three potential policy reforms: a quota for free-school-meal (FSM) pupils, a lottery for a quota of seats and banding. We find that the FSM quota is not only more effective at increasing access for disadvantaged but does so with less disruption (distance travelled, change in school intakes). Another special feature of our study is that our policy simulations cover all 150+ school districts (called Local Authorities) in England. So no need to worry about: would the effect you find in city X also apply in city Y.  
 
The full report is here: Modifying school choice for more equitable access in England

 Here's a blog post:  Access to highly effective schools: The case for reform
Posted on November 6, 2025 by Ffion Lindsay 

 "How do we address the gap in attainment between the most advantaged and disadvantaged students in the UK? Pioneering research, led by the University of Bristol, reveals the reforms most likely to equalise our education system.
Lead author Simon Burgess, Professor of Economics, explains how the team’s findings could lead to much-needed changes in how school places are allocated.

"There is much to applaud about the school system in England, but also deep problems. Chief among these is the wide and persistent gap in educational attainment between disadvantaged children and pupils from more affluent families.

"For example, in 2019, around 30% of pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) achieved the benchmark performance in GCSEs, compared to double that among more affluent pupils. This gap has barely changed for at least 20 years.

"Part of this gap arises from differences in the effectiveness of the schools these children attend. Richer pupils are much more likely to be assigned to effective secondary schools.

"In fact, richer pupils are over 40% more likely to attend a highly effective secondary school (in the top 25% of value-added, in England called Progress 8). Not only might this be considered unfair for the current generation, it can also perpetuate income inequality through the generations.

 "The geography problem
Differences in the effectiveness of schools attended might simply be the result of families’ preferences for schools. Our research, however, shows that admissions arrangements play an important role in explaining the observed unequal attendance at effective secondary schools.

"Specifically, most English secondary schools explicitly prioritise pupils according to where they live – either through defined catchment areas or by ranking applicants by straight-line distance between home and school.

"This is not neutral: desirable schools generate substantial house price premiums in their catchment areas, effectively pricing out lower-income families. School choice through residential location appears not to be an option for poorer families. We show that richer pupils disproportionately move into the catchment areas of popular schools during their primary school years."

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Reading this from the U.S., I'm struck by how our problem of sending poor children to poor schools is similar across the pond.  In the US we often attribute this in part to the fact that US schools are funded by municipal  real estate taxes, so schools in richer towns are better funded. But it appears that this problem can be reproduced in England simply by admitting students preferentially based on their nearness to schools, when better schools are located near more expensive houses. (This happens in US cities, too.) The between-country comparisons might help to disentangle peer effects from funding effects in what leads to school effectiveness.

Xenotransplants go to (clinical) trial

 Yesterday's post was about a man who received a pig kidney as an exceptional "compassionate use" case. But now some formal clinical trials of xenotransplantation are beginning. 

 Medpage Today has the story:

First Clinical Trial of Pig Kidney Transplants Gets Underway
— Study's initial transplant was performed successfully
by Associated Press, November 4, 2025  

"The first clinical trial is getting underway to see if transplanting pig kidneys into people might really save lives.

"United Therapeutics, a producer of gene-edited pig kidneys, announced Monday that the study's initial transplant was performed successfully at NYU Langone Health in New York City.

"It's the latest step in the quest for animal-to-human transplants. A second U.S. company, eGenesis, is preparing to begin its own pig kidney clinical trial in the coming months. These are the first known clinical trials of what is called xenotransplantation in the world. 

...

"Robert Montgomery, MD, PhD, of NYU, who led the transplant team, told the Associated Press his hospital has a list of other patients interested in joining the small trial, which will initially include six people. If all goes well, it could be expanded to up to 50 as additional transplant centers join.

"The FDA is allowing the rigorous studies after a series of so-called "compassionate use" experiments, with mixed results. The first two gene-edited pig kidney transplants were short-lived.

"Then doctors began working with patients who badly needed a kidney but weren't as sick as prior recipients. At NYU, an Alabama woman's pig kidney lasted 130 days before she had to return to dialysis. The latest record, 271 days, was set by a New Hampshire man transplanted at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston; he also is back on dialysis after the pig organ began declining and was removed last month. Others known to be living with a pig kidney are another MGH patient and a woman in China. "