Three-way kidney exchange makes it to more hospitals

Innovations diffuse, and the ability to do three-way kidney exchanges is showing up at more hospitals, as this story from North Carolina shows: Three given the gift of life for Christmas

"GREENVILLE, N.C. - Three people in the east were given the gift of life this Christmas.

"Doctors from Pitt County Memorial Hospital announced today what is believed to be the first successful six-person kidney exchange in the Carolinas.

"Chief of Transplant Surgery, Dr. Robert Harland says its the culmination of a process that has taken more than a year.

"Each of the recipients had a willing donor who was not a match, so by swapping donors they were all able to get the transplant."

More details of the three way exchange are given in this story.

For background papers, see

• Saidman, Susan L., Alvin E. Roth, Tayfun Sönmez, M. Utku Ünver, and Francis L. Delmonico, " Increasing the Opportunity of Live Kidney Donation By Matching for Two and Three Way Exchanges," Transplantation, ,81, 5, March 15, 2006, 773-782.
• Roth, Alvin E., Tayfun Sonmez , and M. Utku Unver, "Efficient Kidney Exchange: Coincidence of Wants in Markets with Compatibility-Based Preferences," (May, 2005. NBER Paper w11402), American Economic Review, 97, 3, June 2007, 828-851.