Kidney Exchange in Latin America and the Caribbean

 Kidney exchange isn't yet thriving in Latin America, but the basic infrastructure is in place. It would make a lot of sense to jumpstart kidney exchange by allowing cross border exchange, so that there would be a large enough pool of patient-donor pairs to make finding a match easy. Here's an article surveying the member countries of the Latin America and Caribbean Transplant Society.

Bastos, Juliana, David José de Barros Machado, Raquel Megale Moreira, Gustavo Fernandes Ferreira, and Elias David-Neto. "Kidney Paired Donation in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Update." Transplantation 108, no. 6 (2024): 1257-1258.

"we assess the situation of KPD in the countries affiliated with the Latin America and Caribbean Transplant Society (STALYC).

  

"Guatemala was the first country to publish a scientific report on KPD in 2018,8 with 4 kidney paired transplants performed between 2010 and 2017.

"Two reports from Argentina on local news websites reported 2-way exchanges involving 2 pairs in 20159 and 2018.10

"Costa Rica published a 2-way exchange on the hospital’s social media page in 2016,11 whereas a 2-way exchange transplantation was performed in Brazil in 2020.12

"Mexico is leading the reported KPD activity with a first experience involving 4 pairs in a chain beginning with an altruistic donor13 reported in 2019. A more recent publication reported on 22 pairs transplanted with longer chains and excellent results.14

"It is interesting to note that there are 6 countries—Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, and Paraguay—with laws explicitly permitting KPD. Thus far, there has not been a report on KPD in those countries, which is likely due to the relatively recent publication of these legislations, all of which occurred after 2010.

...

"A recent publication has shed light on the potential of KPD in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs), strongly advocating for the promotion and encouragement of KPD programs, including considerations of cost advantages.17 Of additional relevance, valuable recommendations on initiating KPD programs in LMICs include starting with smaller chains, considering simultaneous surgeries, and implementing effective organ transport strategies.17 By adopting these strategies, LMICs can address compatibility issues and enhance their organ transplantation capabilities.

"Considering that KT is the superior and more cost-effective treatment option for patients with CKD, it is puzzling that the initiation of KPD programs remains limited in a region primarily composed of LMICs. Although some countries may have implemented KPD programs without publication, genuinely active programs beyond Mexico remain missing. It is crucial to emphasize that in most of these countries, deceased donor transplantation also falls significantly short of estimated needs.3,7 The entire infrastructure surrounding transplantation, including both living and deceased donors, continues to require substantial improvements. Particularly for KPD, initiatives such as educational campaigns for physicians, recipients, and donors, as well as investments in logistics and software in addition to a legal framework, need to be encouraged. Similar to KPD programs in Europe,5,18 collaborative efforts across countries could benefit smaller countries. Transplant societies, including STALYC, could play a vital role in supporting the advancement of paired donation, ensuring improved access to transplantation for their populations, especially with living donors."

Argentine presidential politics, and monetary markets for kidneys

 The Financial Times reports on the surprising primary election performance of a far right candidate, Javier Milei.

Argentina radical rightwinger shakes up presidential race with primary win. by Ciara Nugent

"Javier Milei, a radical libertarian economist and outsider candidate, unexpectedly won Argentina’s primary poll, indicating a strong shift to the right as the South American country prepares to vote in a presidential election.

"Milei, a former television personality and one-term congressional representative who has called for extreme austerity and dollarising Argentina’s economy, won 30.1 per cent of the vote on Sunday, surpassing pollsters’ average forecast of 20 per cent, with 96 per cent of votes counted.

"That put his Freedom Advances party ahead of centre-right force Together for Change, with 28.3 per cent, and the ruling populist coalition Union for the Homeland, whose candidate is centrist economy minister Sergio Massa, which earned 27.2 per cent."

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I'm not a close follower of Argentine politics, but his name rang a bell, and reminded me that I had blogged about him in connection of his support for markets for kidneys. (There's no indication that was an issue in the presidential primaries...)

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

An unusual Argentine presidential candidate supports a monetary market for kidneys

Victor Elias (1937-2023)

Victor Elias died last week, at 85.  He had a strong influence on academic economics in Argentina, not least through the many influential Argentine economists he helped inspire to study in the U.S., particularly at the University of Chicago, where he got his Ph.D. in 1969.

Here's the funeral notice published yesterday in La Nacion:

"Victor Elias, RIP. It is with deep regret that we bid farewell to a great talent and person, with countless  disciples, admirers and friends, economists scattered throughout the world. We accompany the entire community of Tucuman economists, the UNT and especially his children, grandchildren and great-grandson. Signed by: Fernando Alvarez, Hugo Hopenhayn, Rody Manuelli, Juan Pablo Nicolini, Alvin Roth, Silvana Tenreyro, Iván Werning."

Here's the obit from La Gaceta

Murió el economista tucumano Víctor Elías. Tuvo una reconocida trayectoria como académico en la UNT. Tenía 85 años.[Tucuman economist Víctor Elías died. He had a recognized career as an academic at UNT. He was 85 years old.]

"The renowned Tucuman economist and academic Víctor Elías passed away at the age of 85, leaving an enormous legacy that has marked several generations of Tucumans who studied Economics at the National University of Tucumán. 

"The son of Syrian immigrants, he was born in the capital of Tucumán on July 21, 1937 and due to his ancestry he received the nickname "Turk", as he was known inside and outside academic circles. "

Victor Elias and Al Roth, Tucuman, November 2016, photo by Ivan Werning

 

Donate blood or organs to pay a traffic fine or shorten a prison term?

I spend a lot of my time thinking and writing about repugnant transactions and controversial markets, and some of that intersects with my work on blood and organ donation and transplantation (particularly on the controversial issue of compensation for donors, and how that might intersect with varieties of coercion). But today's post is about two proposals that mix all these things together. (My guess is that many people will find them differently repugnant: think of them as a quick test of your own views.)

In Argentina, a municipal judge proposes blood donation to pay traffic fines, and in Massachusetts several legislators co-sponsor a bill to allow bone marrow (blood stem cell) donation or organ donation to reduce prison sentences.

First, blood donation and traffic fines:

 Mario Macis points me to this story in La Nacion, about a city in the Argentine province of Salta:

En una ciudad de Salta las multas de tránsito se pueden pagar con una donación de sangre  [In a city of Salta, traffic fines can be paid with a blood donation]  (English from Google Translate)

"In the city of Tartagal, Salta, it is possible to pay a traffic ticket with a blood donation . The measure, taken two months ago, generates both support and questioning.

...

"The judge of the Court of Misdemeanors of the Municipality of Tartagal, Farid Obeid , proposed in a ruling last August that those who had traffic fines could pay them with their own blood donation or from third parties on behalf of the offenders.

"It was then determined that donations be made in hospitals, voluntarily and only once; that is to say that repeat offenders cannot opt ​​for blood donation.

...

"The ruling received support and criticism, the latter basically from the health sector. Oscar Torres, president of the Argentine Association of Hemotherapy, Immunohematology and Cellular Therapy , sent a letter to the Deliberative Council of Tartagal indicating that the measure removes the "spirit of solidarity and altruism from blood donation" 

Here's a related story about the ongoing debate (also using Google translate):

Controversy over an unusual municipal project: they claim that fines can be paid with blood. "This controversial project was presented to the Deliberative Council of Tartagal, and criticism has already begun"

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And here's the new bill proposed in Massachusetts (don't hold your breath waiting for it to be passed into law). It's in English, so the phrase about the necessary "amount of bone marrow and organ(s) donated to earn one’s sentence to be commuted" isn't a translation error; I think it's just awkward (i.e. not meant to be chilling). (But the discussion of donated "organ(s)" makes me think of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel "Never Let Me Go"). 

Bill HD.3822, 193rd (Current), An Act to establish the Massachusetts incarcerated individual bone marrow and organ donation program

"Section 170. (a) The Commissioner of the Department of Corrections shall establish a Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Program within the Department of Correction and a Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Committee. The Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Program shall allow eligible incarcerated individuals to gain not less than 60 and not more than 365 day reduction in the length of their committed sentence in Department of Corrections facilities, or House of Correction facilities if they are serving a Department of Correction sentence in a House of Corrections facility, on the condition that the incarcerated individual has donated bone marrow or organ(s). 

...

"The Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Committee shall also be responsible for promulgating standards of eligibility for incarcerated individuals to participate and the amount of bone marrow and organ(s) donated to earn one’s sentence to be commuted. Annual reports including actual amounts of bone marrow and organ(s) donated, and the estimated life-savings associated with said donations, are to be filed with the Executive and Legislative branches of the Commonwealth. All costs associated with the Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Program will be done by the benefiting institutions of the program and their affiliates-not by the Department of Correction. There shall be no commissions or monetary payments to be made to the Department of Correction for bone marrow donated by incarcerated individuals."

Simultaneous HT to Ron Shorrer, Kim Krawiec, Akhil Vohra

Depreciated currency

I'm flying home today from Argentina, where I took part in the TTS2022 international transplant conference.   I had to change dollars to pesos, which is made more complicated by the fact that Argentina has experienced persistently very high inflation.  But I feel on much more solid ground than if I had been in Venezuela, where inflation has wreaked havoc.

 David Klinowski recently finished a postdoc at Stanford and moved to Pitt. As a souvenir, he gave us this peacock, made by an artist from depreciated Venezuelan currency, which happens to have pictures of birds.  Persistent inflation has made this one of the high value uses of these old bills.

Here's a snippet of inflation data from the IMF: 

Venezuela: Inflation rate from 2012 to 2022 (compared to the previous year)

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In contrast to Venezuela, inflation in Argentina could be worse--it's less than 100% a year--double digits rather than 5 digits--although it's still among the highest in the world:

Argentina: Inflation rate from 2004 to 2027(compared to the previous year), with 2014-16 missing (and estimated going forward)

Access to transplantation around the world, at the International Congress of The Transplantation Society (TTS 2022) in Buenos Aires

I'm attending the 29th International Congress of The Transplantation Society (TTS 2022) | Buenos Aires - Argentina, and will speak in the first plenary session, on Access and Transparency in transplantation around the world.  I'll be the third of three speakers:

Plenary on access and transparency

 Monday, September 12, 2022 – 09:40 to 11:10

Transplantation in a moving world: Migrants, refugees & organ trafficking

Dominique Martin, Australia

Short Biography

Steps towards increasing deceased donation worldwide

Beatriz Dominguez-Gil, Spain

Short Biography

Transplant sufficiency in an unequal world

Alvin E. Roth, United States

Short Biography

Gender neutral words in gendered languages

Novel pronouns haven't been widely adopted in English, but committees now have chairs or chairpersons, and there are some attempts not merely to avoid assigning male or female genders to words when they're not needed (like chairman), but also to avoid suggesting genders at all.  That's going to be tougher in languages in which all words have genders, or in which the conjugation of verbs involves choosing a gender.  Take Spanish for instance.

The NY Times has the story:

In Argentina, One of the World’s First Bans on Gender-Neutral Language. The city of Buenos Aires blocked the use of gender-inclusive language in schools, reigniting off a debate that is reverberating across the world.   By Ana Lankes

"Instead of “amigos,” the Spanish word for “friends,” some Spanish speakers use “amigues.” In place of “todos,” or “all,” some write “todxs.” And some signs that would say “bienvenidos,” or “welcome,” now say “bienvenid@s.”

...

"Similar gender-neutral language is being increasingly introduced across Latin America, as well as in other languages, including English and French, by supporters who say it helps create a more inclusive society.

...

"The city government in Buenos Aires, the nation’s capital, last month banned teachers from using any gender-neutral words during class and in communications with parents. 

...

"The policy, among the first anywhere to specifically forbid the use of gender-neutral language, provoked a swift backlash. Argentina’s top education official criticized the rule and at least five organizations, a mix of gay rights and civil rights groups, have filed lawsuits seeking to overturn it.

"Jaime Perczyk, Argentina’s education minister, compared the measure to prohibitions against left-handed writing under the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco in Spain.

...

"Argentina is a surprising place for such a heated debate on gender-neutral language because the country has largely embraced transgender rights. In 2012, it became one the first countries in the world to pass a law allowing people to change their gender on official documents without requiring the intervention of a doctor or a mental health therapist."

An unusual Argentine presidential candidate supports a monetary market for kidneys

 The right-wing Argentine politician,  Javier Milei, who describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist (but who the Washington Post thinks has a chance of becoming Argentina's next president, supports the sale of kidneys for transplantation. (The Buenos Aires Times describes him in general as an "outspoken provocateur.") While the election is only in 2023, this is the first time I have heard of this issue entering any sort of political campaign.

Here's the story in La Nacion, with some excerpts in rough translation by Google:

Javier Milei se manifestó a favor de la venta de órganos tras apoyar la compra libre de armas y denunciar a periodistas: “Es un mercado más”  2 de junio de 2022

"Javier Milei spoke out in favor of the sale of organs after supporting the free purchase of weapons and denouncing journalists: “It is one more market”

"In a week full of controversy for having denounced journalists and supported the free purchase of arms , the national deputy Javier Milei expressed another controversial opinion this morning: he declared himself in favor of the sale of organs . “It is one more market,” said the libertarian, who has already declared himself a presidential candidate for 2023.

"Asked about his position regarding this practice prohibited by law in Argentina, Milei said: “It is one more market and you could think of it as a market. The problem is why everything has to be regulated by the State.

...

"Later, he said that "there is probably something" that leads someone to decide to market their organs and under the assumption that this reason could be, for example, poverty, Milei indicated: "Then we are going to put it in other terms: if not you end up buying that organ, you end up starving and you don't even have a life."

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HT: Julio Elias

Repugnance and market design in translation: video and transcript (en español, en argentina)

 I recently was interviewed by Jorge Fontevecchia via Zoom in Argentina. Among other things, we spoke (in English) about how both markets and bans on markets need social support to work well. You can listen to the interview as it was broadcast on Argentine tv, in Spanish translation, with voice-over (i.e. you can only hear me vaguely in the background, and a Spanish speaking lady's voice conveys my answers...).

A  Spanish transcript is here:

Alvin Roth: “La repugnancia afecta a mercados, y la prohibición de algunos de ellos sigue siendo muy controvertida”

When I look at the result in Google Translate, the back-translation produces some unexpected results (as well as the expected result that "repugnance" comes back as "disgust."  Here's an example of a funny Q&A involving the dual meanings of the Spanish word "tiempo":

How does the passage of time affect the markets?

“Weather affects markets in many ways..."

But here's a Q&A that back-translated well enough to get the gist (modulo some pronouns):

Do you think that whenever there is a transaction involving money, what is being exchanged automatically becomes an object or thing because there is money involved?

“I don't agree with that at all. He's probably getting paid to do this interview that he's doing, but his employer is paying him because he's an expert journalist and interviewer. And sadly, I'm not getting paid for this interview, but you and I are no less human. There is nothing about the transaction that you are not doing as part of your job, and I do it just for fun. Nothing in that transaction makes one of us more or less human. When I think of merchandise [commodities], I think of things that are not different from each other. If I were a baker and I wanted to buy wheat I could buy it at a commodity market, it has all sorts of descriptive terms, we make bread with number two hard red winter wheat, that's a complete description. I don't have to care which farmer you buy it from because it has been well described. But when you want to hire a baker in your bakery, you don't just hire a baker because they are not commodities. You have to find a particular person that you want to hire and you don't make an offer to the general market saying, I want 5 thousand bushels of wheat, but to a particular person saying, I want to hire you. That doesn't depersonalize the market at all."

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Update:

Here's a Portugese translation, on which Google translate also works reasonably well:

Alvin Roth: “Um dos problemas mais difíceis que estamos vendo no mundo agora tem a ver com o reassentamento de refugiados”

*Por Jorge Fontevecchia – Cofundador da Editoria Perfil – CEO da Perfil Network.

Access and transparency in transplantation at the TTS 2022 meeting in September

 Covid-permitting, I'll be flying to Buenos Aires in September to participate in person in the 2022 international meeting of The Transplantation Society (TTS), with a focus on access and transparency in transplantation.

Plenary on transparency and access

 Monday, September 12, 2022 – 09:40 to 11:10

Transplantation in a moving world; migrants, refugees & organ trafficking

Dominique Martin, Australia

Short Biography

Steps towards increasing deceased donation worldwide

Beatriz Dominguez-Gil, Spain

Short Biography

How can we optimize local economics to achieve self-sufficiency and ethical transplantation in an unequal global economy

Alvin E. Roth, United States

Short Biography

Laura Doval on kidney exchange in Argentina

Laura Doval, a market designer who teaches at Cal Tech and who hails from Argentina, has an article in FOCO ECONÓMICO about some of the market design issues facing kidney exchange in Argentina, including some issues addressed in her own research:

Trasplante cruzado: Argentina le abre las puertas al diseño de mercados
(Google translate: Cross transplant: Argentina opens the doors to market design)

"The new legal framework creates a system where patients with their non-compatible living donors can register and is responsible for finding compatible pairs. In our example, Ana and Barbara may not know each other (even live in different provinces) and even then the exchange could take place. In addition, the law removes the requirement to go through a judge and establishes the rules under which the exchange occurs.

" Although Argentina is the first country in Latin America to approve kidney transplants as a transplant modality, this modality has a long time in the world: South Korea performed the first cross transplant in 1990; in 1999, Switzerland led the first in Europe; in 2000, it began in the United States, where it is estimated that 13% of kidney transplants occur according to this modality. In the United States, it was doctors and economists who promoted the creation of cross-transplant centers. In fact, the New England cross transplant center was founded by Dr. Delmonico and the economist Al Roth. The latter received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2012, in part because of the practical implications of his work for the design of these systems.
...
"Given the incipient state of the project in Argentina, it is a good time to reflect on what we can learn from existing projects, both to imitate them and to innovate about them:

"Who can be donors? In Argentina, the law continues insisting that the recipient-donor pairs (in our example, Ana-Bernardo and Bárbara-Alejandro) have a family link to be able to enroll in the "Cross-Renal Donation Program". Although most of the times the recipient-donor couples have a family bond, this restriction limits the possibilities of finding a successful exchange. Among other things, this restriction does not foresee the possibility of altruistic donors: people who enroll in the system to be living donors but do not accompany a recipient. In practice, the presence of altruistic donors has allowed to implement, in addition to crossed transplants, also chains. In a chain, the altruistic donor gives his kidney to the recipient of an incompatible couple, whose donor then gives his kidney to another non-compatible partner, etc. The difference between the chains and the cross transplant is that it is not necessary to close the cycle. There are two types of chains.
"In the Domino Chain , the donor of the last couple donates their kidney to someone on the waiting list.

"In Never Ending Altruistic Donation , the donor of the last couple is recorded in the system. If it is necessary for the chain to continue (because someone who requires a living donor is listed) you will be required to donate your kidney.
 The reason for requiring the last recipient to have a potential donor is to avoid situations where someone is benefited without returning to the system.

"Compatible pairs : [3]The law provides that only donor-recipient couples that are incompatible can participate in the program. This does not take into account the benefit of including partners that are compatible. On the one hand, it would allow for more exchanges. As an example, think of Ana, a patient of blood type A, and Osvaldo, her donor, of blood type 0. Let's suppose that there is another patient, Oscar, of blood type 0, with his donor, Alejandra, of blood type A. In this case, Alejandra can not donate her kidney to Oscar (blood group A can not donate to blood group 0), while Ana and Osvaldo can not participate because they are compatible. Therefore, we could only carry out the transplant between Ana and Osvaldo. If Ana and Osvaldo could participate in the system, we could make two donations: Alejandra to Ana and Osvaldo to Oscar. Further, This could be beneficial for Ana: if Alejandra has better compatibility in age and weight with Ana than she has with Osvaldo, Ana's life expectancy is now better. To the extent that we design a system that does not harm patients in compatible pairs (for example, offering the patient to participate in exchanges with donors of better quality than theirs), the system can generate a greater number of donations and of better quality.

"Connection to the waiting list : In Argentina, the law allows couples enrolled in the cross-donation program to have their recipient also enrolled on the waiting list for a cadaveric transplant while waiting for another couple to be assigned to them. Suppose that a receiver enrolled in both systems receives a cadaveric transplant offer. As a living donor transplant is very superior in quality to a cadaverous one, it is possible that the recipient wants to decline this offer and keep their options open. On the one hand, we want to give you that freedom so you can get the best possible result and potentially use your donor for another operation; On the other hand, if there is no penalty for rejecting the offer, the waiting time of the patients in both lists increases.

"At the time of writing this article, the new law does not mention what happens in the event that a patient enrolled in both systems decline a cadaveric transplant offer. The rules we implement will determine the recipients' incentives to accept or decline these offers; these incentives then determine what kind of organ allocations we can implement. In fact, understanding this interaction between the rules that determine the allocation of offers on the waiting list after declining an offer and the assignments that we can implement both in the list and in the cross-donation program was the focus of the first chapter of my doctoral thesis. While there I study ways in which to design these rules, the main message is as follows:[4] This puts us before the following dilemma. One option is to rethink the transplant system, both cadaverous and crossed, jointly rather than as two independent systems. The second option is to think about how to determine the priority within the waiting list of cadaveric transplants of patients who are in both systems. Since these patients have more options than those only on the waiting list, treating them in the same way implicitly harms those with fewer options. When there are multiple lists to assign similar objects, economists know very little about how to design the priorities of the participants annotated in multiple lists in order to guarantee the efficiency in the allocation. This is one of the topics that my current research occupies."
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See my earlier post

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Kidney exchange authorized in Argentina

Kidney exchange authorized in Argentina

A judicially-authorized kidney exchange already took place in Argentina (involving a well known journalist, Jorge Lanata), but now, Julio Elias points out to me,  a regular program of kidney exchange has been authorized:

Donación de órganos
Aprueban la donación renal cruzada, que posibilitó el inédito trasplante de Lanata
El Incucai autorizó el programa que busca reducir los tiempos de espera para quienes necesitan un trasplante de riñón.
[They approve the crossed renal donation, that made possible the unpublished transplant of Lanata
The Incucai authorized the program that seeks to reduce the waiting times for those who need a kidney transplant.]

The formal description of the program's rules is here (in pdf in Spanish):
PROGRAMA DE DONACION RENAL CRUZADA
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See my earlier post:

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Kidney exchange talk at INCUCAI in Buenos Aires

On my visit to Argentina last week I gave a talk Wednesday on kidney exchange at the Argentine transplant coordination authority INCUCAI, which was followed by a lively and largely positive discussion of how (and whether) to try to bring kidney exchange to Argentina...

An interview in the Buenas Aires Herald (in English): "All market design is political"

I went to Argentina hopeful that I could get some insight there into our new president-elect, since they have had a lot of experience with populist politicians. The consensus there seemed to be that we shouldn't expect campaign promises to be taken too seriously, since populist voters quickly forget them and can be mollified with new promises. And maybe we should expect inflation...

While I was there, newspaper reporters couldn't resist asking me about the election results, together with market design...

Here's an interview (in English) in the Buenos Aires Herald.

‘All market design is political’

My talk at UCEMA in Buenos Aires (video)

On my visit to Argentina my first talk (of 5) was at UCEMA, on November 16. You can see some pictures here.

Here is a video of my talk, about market design and my book Who Gets What and Why. My talk starts at minute 7:50.

Kidney exchange talk at INCUCAI in Buenos Aires

On my visit to Argentina last week I gave a talk Wednesday on kidney exchange at the Argentine transplant coordination authority INCUCAI, which was followed by a lively and largely positive discussion of how (and whether) to try to bring kidney exchange to Argentina.

El Premio Nobel de Economía Alvin Roth brindó una charla sobre donación y trasplante en el INCUCAI  (Google Translate: "The Nobel Prize in Economics Alvin Roth gave a talk about donation and transplantation in the INCUCAI"}

Both at INCUCAI and in my subsequent meeting in Tucuman, there was interest not only in kidney exchange, but in global kidney exchange, as Argentina presently has foreign patients on the deceased donor waiting lists at public hospitals.

Visit to Tucuman, Argentina, where there may be prospects for kidney exchange

During my visit to Argentina, my host, Julio Elias, arranged a number of talks and meetings which I'll report on as I get organized.  Some of the meetings were about the prospects of organizing kidney exchange in Argentina (where there has already been one famous exchange).  My first meeting on this subject was in Buenos Aires, my second in Tucuman. Both were promising.

Here are some reports from Tucuman.
Here's an account of my meeting with Governor  Juan Manzur and the Minister of Public Health Rossana Chahla and their colleagues, on November 18.
Manzur se reunió con el premio Nobel de Economía Alvin Roth

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Here's a news story that combines an interview with me (the reporter asked first about Donald Trump and only then about kidneys), followed by some comments by the Minister of Public Health on the prospects for kidney exchange:

“Las barreras al comercio en Estados Unidos afectarán a países desarrollados y a emergentes”

from Google Translate:
"The health minister of the province, Rossana Chahla said that the Government was interested in the visit of the American expert for their expertise in increasing the number of transplants and ablations, and the possibility of replicating this model in Tucuman.

"from here we will coordinate with Argentine economists studying this issue and we want to have a specialist to see visit how to work in Chicago (United States) and bring solutions to the province benefit people , "he said.

on the other hand, the official said that the work of Roth have shown that interventions crossed kidney transplants allow the state to reduce costs in dialysis treatments and reduce waiting lists of patients.

" in the United States there is a law that allows cross and living donor transplants, which means that by a living donor, you can make a donation chain where several people benefit , "said Health Minister, as appropriated news agency Telam .

he added that in Argentina this can only be done with a court order and stressed that, therefore, only transplants are specified with cadaver donor, generating extensive waiting lists for access to organs.

"the US system reduces lists and Roth shows that these interventions reduces health costs, and helps solve the quality of life of people because not to do dialysis and can be reinserted fast occupationally "analyzed Chahla. "
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And here's a report of a subsequent meeting held by Dr Chahla:

Mejoras en materia de trasplantes (Improvements in transplant).
"Minister of Public Health, Dr. Rossana Chahla, met with the director of Cucaituc, Dr. Aldo Bunader to treat transplant referral service issues in the province. They were attended by Nobel Prize-winning economist Alvin Roth, who offered to work together in what refers to Software, donation and transplantation cross.

Bunader was satisfied with the points raised and by the visit of economist Roth. "We have been meeting with him. He offered all their service, make an agreement and exchange; We're very pleased with that part, "he said."