Sandholm on kidney exchange

Tuomas Sandholm writes:

"I just today updated my web page with my new papers.  Here are the main kidney exchange papers that I have been involved with.  This is not a complete list, but these are the main ones."

• Dickerson, J. and Sandholm, T. 2015. FutureMatch: Combining Human Value Judgments and Machine Learning to Match in Dynamic Environments. In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Extended version with appendix.
• Hajaj, C., Dickerson, J., Hassidim, A., Sandholm, T., and Sarne, D. 2015. Strategy-Proof and Efficient Kidney Exchange Using a Credit Mechanism. In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
• Dickerson, J. and Sandholm, T. 2014. Multi-Organ Exchange: The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts. In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Early version in IJCAI-13 workshop on Constraint Reasoning, Planning and Scheduling Problems for a Sustainable Future (GREEN-COPLAS).
• Dickerson, J., Procaccia, A., and Sandholm, T. 2014. Price of Fairness in Kidney Exchange. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS).
• Dickerson, J. and Sandholm, T. 2014. Balancing Efficiency and Fairness in Dynamic Kidney Exchange. In Proceedings of the Modern Artificial Intelligence for Health Analytics (MAIHA) workshop at AAAI-14.
• Dickerson, J., Procaccia, A., and Sandholm, T. 2014. Empirical Price of Fairness in Failure-Aware Kidney Exchange. Towards Better and more Affordable Healthcare: Incentives, Game Theory, and Artificial Intelligence (HCAGT) workshop at AAMAS-14.
• Leishman, R., Stewart, D., Monstello, C., Cherikh, W., Sandholm, T., Formica, R., Aeder, M. 2014. The OPTN Kidney Paired Donation Pilot Program (KPDPP): Reaching the Tipping Point in 2013. World Transplant Congress (WTC). Abstract, presentation.
• Aeder, M., Stewart, D., Leishman, R., Sandholm, T., Formica, R. 2014. Early Outcomes of Transplant Recipients in the OPTN Kidney Paired Donation Pilot Program.
  World Transplant Congress (WTC). Abstract, presentation.
• Stewart, D., Leishman, R., Kucheryavaya, A., Formica, R., Aeder, M., Bingaman, A., Gentry, S., Sandholm, T., and Ashlagi, I. 2014. Exploring the Candidate/Donor Compatibility Matrix to Identify Opportunities to Improve the OPTN KPD Pilot Program's Priority Point Schedule. World Transplant Congress (WTC). Abstract, poster.
• Dickerson, J., Procaccia, A., and Sandholm, T. 2013. Failure-Aware Kidney Exchange. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce (EC). Extended version.
• Leishman, R., Formica, R., Andreoni, K., Friedewald, J., Sleeman, E., Monstello, C., Stewart, D., and Sandholm, T. 2013. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Kidney Paired Donation Pilot Program (KPDPP): Review of Current Results. American Transplant Congress (ATC). Abstract of talk.
• Leishman, R., Formica, R., Andreoni, K., Friedewald, J., Sleeman, E., Monstello, C., Stewart, D., and Sandholm, T. 2013. An Early Look at Transplant Outcomes from the OPTN KPD Pilot Program: Comparing Cold Times and DGF Rates with Other Living and Deceased Donor Transplants. American Transplant Congress (ATC). Abstract of talk.
• Stewart, D., Leishman, R., Sleeman, E., Monstello, C., Lunsford, G., Maghirang, J., Sandholm, T., Gentry, S., Formica, R., Friedewald, J., and Andreoni, K. 2013. Tuning the OPTN's KPD Optimization Algorithm to Incentivize Centers to Enter Their "Easy-to-Match" Pairs. American Transplant Congress (ATC). Abstract of talk.
• Dickerson, J., Procaccia, A., and Sandholm, T. 2012. Dynamic Matching via Weighted Myopia with Application to Kidney Exchange. In Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
• Dickerson, J., Procaccia, A., and Sandholm, T. 2012. Optimizing Kidney Exchange with Transplant Chains: Theory and Reality. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS).
• Woodle, S., Daller, J., Aeder M., Shapiro, R., Sandholm, T., Casingal, V., Goldfarb, D., Lewis, R., Goebel, J., and Siegler, M. 2010. Ethical Considerations for Participation of Nondirected Living Donors in Kidney Exchange Programs. American Journal of Transplantation 10: 1460-1467.
• Awasthi, P. and Sandholm, T. 2009. Online Stochastic Optimization in the Large: Application to Kidney Exchange. In Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI).
• Rees, M., Kopke, J., Pelletier, R., Segev, D., Fabrega, A., Rogers, J., Pankewycz, O., Hiller, J., Roth, A., Sandholm, T., Ünver, U., Nibhanubpudy, R., Bowers, V., VanBuren, C., and Montgomery, R. 2009. Six Nonsimultaneous Extended Altruistic Donor (NEAD) Chains. American Transplant Congress (ATC).
• Rees, M., Kopke, J., Pelletier, R., Segev, D., Rutter, M., Fabrega, A., Rogers, J., Pankewycz, O., Hiller, J., Roth, A., Sandholm, T., Ünver, U., and Montgomery, R. 2009. A Nonsimultaneous, Extended, Altruistic-Donor Chain. New England Journal of Medicine 360(11), 1096-1101.
• Abraham, D., Blum, A., and Sandholm, T. 2007. Clearing Algorithms for Barter Exchange Markets: Enabling Nationwide Kidney Exchanges. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce (EC).

Kidney exchange: stories of donors and recipients

Kidney exchange isn't just about the technology of matching and the logistics of arranging many surgeries, or difficult ones, it is also about the intensely personal stories of donors and recipients.  The news stories below open a window on some of those, from Vancouver British Columbia. to San Antonio Texas

Backing out was never an option for B.C. donor
"I was the last in the chain to do the donation," said Campbell, 48, of Qualicum Beach, B.C., who was scheduled to give one of her kidneys to a Montreal man days after her husband Steve got a kidney from an Ottawa donor. Organizers asked her repeatedly whether she would honour her commitment no matter what happened on the operating table to her husband, she recalled.

 "'And what happens if Steve doesn't do well, will you still be able to get on a plane and go?' They put a lot of faith in me not backing out."

  *********

FAITH, FREEDOM AND A KIDNEY: Healers in it for the long haul

""You have way too many antibodies. You're too big. You're too small. You're too tall. You're too short. There's always a reason to say, 'no.' A lot of times it's easier for hospitals to say, 'no,' Bingaman said. "It's much harder for them to say, 'yes.' " 

Kidney conference: Paris School of Economics, June 28

Kidney Allocation : Evaluation and Perspectives" June 28, 2018 Campus Jourdan - Paris school of economics - Paris

Localisation | Location Campus Jourdan - Paris school of economics - 48 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris Floor 1 - Room R1-13

Organisateurs | Organizers Julien Combe (UCL, London), Victor Hiller (LEMMA, U Panthéon-Assas) and, Olivier Tercieux (Paris School of Economics). Program: 09:00 - 10:00 Peter Biro (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) “Kidney Exchange Practices in Europe” 10:00 – 10.30 Coffee Break 10:30 - 11:30 Marie-Alice Macher (Agence de Bio-Médecine) “Kidney transplantation with living donor versus deceased donor in France From the subsidiarity desired by the pioneers to complementarity” 11:30 – 12:30 Victor Hiller (LEMMA, Université Panthéon-Assas) “Perspectives on the Kidney Exchange Program in France” joint with Audry, Combe, He, Jacquelinet, Macher, Tercieux 12:30 – 14:00 Lunch 14:00 - 15:00 Maximilien Burq (MIT) “Effect of Match-run Frequencies on the Number of Transplants and Waiting Times in Kidney Exchange” joint with Ashlagi, Bingaman, Manshadi, Gamarnik, Murphey, Roth, Melcher, Rees 15:00 - 16:00 Daniel Waldinger (MIT) “An Empirical Framework for Sequential Assignment: The Allocation of Deceased Donor Kidneys” joint with Agarwal, Ashlagi, Rees and Somaini 16-00 – 16:30 Coffee Break 16:30 - 17:30 Yinghua He (Rice) “Kidney Exchange in the Shadow of Desensitization” joint with Combe, Hiller and Tercieux

Kidney exchange collaboration between Stanford and APKD

 I recently had occasion to review the long collaboration between my Stanford colleagues and Mike Rees and the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation. It turns out that, together with other coauthors, Mike and his APKD colleagues have written well over a dozen papers with me and my colleagues at Stanford.  (My own collaboration with Mike and APKD goes back to when Itai Ashlagi and I were still in Boston, where my earliest papers on kidney exchange were with  Tayfun Sönmez and Utku Ünver, and with Frank Delmonico and his colleagues at the New England Program for Kidney Exchange.)

Here's the list I came up with, probably not exhaustive:

Mike Rees/APKD collaborations with Stanford scholars (Ashlagi, Melcher, Roth, Somaini)

 1. Rees, Michael A., Jonathan E. Kopke, Ronald P. Pelletier, Dorry L. Segev, Matthew E. Rutter, Alfredo J. Fabrega, Jeffrey Rogers, Oleh G. Pankewycz, Janet Hiller, Alvin E. Roth, Tuomas Sandholm, Utku Ünver, and Robert A. Montgomery, “A Non-Simultaneous Extended Altruistic Donor Chain,” New England Journal of Medicine, 360;11, March 12, 2009, 1096-1101. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0803645

2.     Ashlagi, Itai, Duncan S. Gilchrist, Alvin E. Roth, and Michael A. Rees, “Nonsimultaneous Chains and Dominos in Kidney Paired Donation – Revisited,” American Journal of Transplantation, 11, 5, May 2011, 984-994 http://www.stanford.edu/~alroth/papers/Nonsimultaneous%20Chains%20AJT%202011.pdf

3.     Ashlagi, Itai, Duncan S. Gilchrist, Alvin E. Roth, and Michael A. Rees, “NEAD Chains in Transplantation,” American Journal of Transplantation, December 2011; 11: 2780–2781. http://web.stanford.edu/~iashlagi/papers/NeadChains2.pdf

4.     Wallis, C. Bradley, Kannan P. Samy, Alvin E. Roth, and Michael A. Rees, “Kidney Paired Donation,” Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, July 2011, 26 (7): 2091-2099 (published online March 31, 2011; doi: 10.1093/ndt/gfr155, https://academic.oup.com/ndt/article/26/7/2091/1896342/Kidney-paired-donation

5.     Rees, Michael A.,  Mark A. Schnitzler, Edward Zavala, James A. Cutler,  Alvin E. Roth, F. Dennis Irwin, Stephen W. Crawford,and Alan B.  Leichtman, “Call to Develop a Standard Acquisition Charge Model for Kidney Paired Donation,” American Journal of Transplantation, 2012, 12, 6 (June), 1392-1397. (published online 9 April 2012 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-6143.2012.04034.x/abstract )

6.     Anderson, Ross, Itai Ashlagi, David Gamarnik, Michael Rees, Alvin E. Roth, Tayfun Sönmez and M. Utku Ünver, " Kidney Exchange and the Alliance for Paired Donation: Operations Research Changes the Way Kidneys are Transplanted," Edelman Award Competition, Interfaces, 2015, 45(1), pp. 26–42. http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/pdf/10.1287/inte.2014.0766

7.     Fumo, D.E., V. Kapoor, L.J. Reece, S.M. Stepkowski,J.E. Kopke, S.E. Rees, C. Smith, A.E. Roth, A.B. Leichtman, M.A. Rees, “Improving matching strategies in kidney paired donation: the 7-year evolution of a web based virtual matching system,” American Journal of Transplantation, October 2015, 15(10), 2646-2654 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1111/ajt.13337/ (designated one of 10 “best of AJT 2015”)

8.     Melcher, Marc L., John P. Roberts, Alan B. Leichtman, Alvin E. Roth, and Michael A. Rees, “Utilization of Deceased Donor Kidneys to Initiate Living Donor Chains,” American Journal of Transplantation, 16, 5, May 2016, 1367–1370. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajt.13740/full

9.     Michael A. Rees, Ty B. Dunn, Christian S. Kuhr, Christopher L. Marsh, Jeffrey Rogers, Susan E. Rees, Alejandra Cicero, Laurie J. Reece, Alvin E. Roth, Obi Ekwenna, David E. Fumo, Kimberly D. Krawiec, Jonathan E. Kopke, Samay Jain, Miguel Tan and Siegfredo R. Paloyo, “Kidney Exchange to Overcome Financial Barriers to Kidney Transplantation,” American Journal of Transplantation, 17, 3, March 2017, 782–790. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajt.14106/full  

a.     M. A. Rees, S. R. Paloyo, A. E. Roth, K. D. Krawiec, O. Ekwenna, C. L. Marsh, A. J. Wenig, T. B. Dunn, “Global Kidney Exchange: Financially Incompatible Pairs Are Not Transplantable Compatible Pairs,” American Journal of Transplantation, 17, 10, October 2017, 2743–2744. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajt.14451/full

b.     A. E. Roth, K. D. Krawiec, S. Paloyo, O. Ekwenna, C. L. Marsh, A. J. Wenig, T. B. Dunn, and M. A. Rees, “People should not be banned from transplantation only because of their country of origin,” American Journal of Transplantation, 17, 10, October 2017, 2747-2748. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajt.14485/full

c.      Ignazio R. Marino, Alvin E. Roth, Michael A. Rees; Cataldo Doria, “Open dialogue between professionals with different opinions builds the best policy, American Journal of Transplantation, 17, 10, October 2017, 2749. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajt.14484/full

10.  Danielle Bozek, Ty B. Dunn, Christian S. Kuhr, Christopher L. Marsh, Jeffrey Rogers, Susan E. Rees, Laura Basagoitia, Robert J. Brunner, Alvin E. Roth, Obi Ekwenna, David E. Fumo, Kimberly D. Krawiec, Jonathan E. Kopke, Puneet Sindhwani, Jorge Ortiz, Miguel Tan, and Siegfredo R. Paloyo, Michael A. Rees, “The Complete Chain of the First Global Kidney Exchange Transplant and 3-yr Follow-up,” European Urology Focus, 4, 2, March 2018, 190-197. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405456918301871

11.  Itai Ashlagi, Adam Bingaman, Maximilien Burq, Vahideh Manshadi, David Gamarnik, Cathi Murphey, Alvin E. Roth,  Marc L. Melcher, Michael A. Rees, ”The effect of match-run frequencies on the number of transplants and waiting times in kidney exchange,” American Journal of Transplantation, 18, 5, May 2018,  1177-1186, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajt.14566

12.   Stepkowski, S. M., Mierzejewska, B., Fumo, D., Bekbolsynov, D., Khuder, S., Baum, C. E., Brunner, R. J., Kopke, J. E., Rees, S. E., Smith, C. E., Ashlagi, I., Roth, A. E., Rees, M. A., “The 6-year clinical outcomes for patients registered in a multiregional United States Kidney Paired Donation program- a retrospective study,” Transplant international 32: 839-853. 2019. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tri.13423

13.   Roth, Alvin E., Ignazio R. Marino, Obi Ekwenna, Ty B. Dunn, Siegfredo R. Paloyo, Miguel Tan, Ricardo Correa-Rotter, Christian S. Kuhr, Christopher L. Marsh, Jorge Ortiz, Giuliano Testa, Puneet Sindhwani, Dorry L. Segev, Jeffrey Rogers, Jeffrey D. Punch, Rachel C. Forbes, Michael A. Zimmerman, Matthew J. Ellis, Aparna Rege, Laura Basagoitia, Kimberly D. Krawiec, and Michael A. Rees, “Global Kidney Exchange Should Expand Wisely, Transplant International, September 2020, 33, 9,  985-988. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tri.13656

14.  Vivek B. Kute, Himanshu V. Patel, Pranjal R. Modi, Sayyad J. Rizvi, Pankaj R. Shah, Divyesh P Engineer, Subho Banerjee, Hari Shankar Meshram, Bina P. Butala, Manisha P. Modi, Shruti Gandhi, Ansy H. Patel, Vineet V. Mishra, Alvin E. Roth, Jonathan E. Kopke, Michael A. Rees, “Non-simultaneous kidney exchange cycles in resource-restricted countries without non-directed donation,” Transplant International,  Volume 34, Issue 4, April 2021,  669-680  https://doi.org/10.1111/tri.13833

15.   Afshin Nikzad, Mohammad Akbarpour, Michael A. Rees, and Alvin E. Roth “Global Kidney Chains,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 7, 2021 118 (36) e2106652118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2106652118 .

16.    Alvin E. Roth, Ignazio R. Marino, Kimberly D. Krawiec, and Michael A. Rees, “Criminal, Legal, and Ethical Kidney Donation and Transplantation: A Conceptual Framework to Enable Innovation,” Transplant International  (2022), 35: doi: 10.3389/ti.2022.10551, https://www.frontierspartnerships.org/articles/10.3389/ti.2022.10551/full

17.   Ignazio R. Marino, Alvin E. Roth, and Michael A. Rees, “Living Kidney Donor Transplantation and Global Kidney Exchange,” Experimental and Clinical Transplantation (2022), Suppl. 4, 5-9. http://www.ectrx.org/class/pdfPreview.php?year=2022&volume=20&issue=8&supplement=4&spage_number=5&makale_no=0

18.  Agarwal, Nikhil, Itai Ashlagi, Michael A. Rees, Paulo Somaini, and Daniel Waldinger. "Equilibrium allocations under alternative waitlist designs: Evidence from deceased donor kidneys." Econometrica 89, no. 1 (2021): 37-76.

And here’s a report of work in progress:

The First 52 Global Kidney Exchange Transplants: overcoming multiple barriers to transplantation by MA Rees, AE Roth , IR Marino, K Krawiec, A Agnihotri, S Rees, K Sweeney, S Paloyo, T Dunn, M Zimmerman, J Punch, R Sung, J Leventhal, A Alobaidli, F Aziz, E Mor, T Ashkenazi, I Ashlagi, M Ellis, A Rege, V Whittaker, R Forbes, C Marsh, C Kuhr, J Rogers, M Tan, L Basagoitia, R Correa-Rotter, S Anwar, F Citterio, J Romagnoli, and O Ekwenna.  Transplantation: September 2022 - Volume 106 - Issue 9S - p S469 doi: 10.1097/01.tp.0000887972.53388.77  https://journals.lww.com/transplantjournal/Fulltext/2022/09001/423_9__The_First_52_Global_Kidney_Exchange.697.aspx

Kidney paired donation conference: financing kidney exchange

A conference in Philadelphia today will take a look at a so far unresolved aspect of kidney exchange: how to finance it. Since transplantation is far cheaper than dialysis, this shouldn't in principle be a big problem, but there are still lots of kinks to iron out in determining who pays for what. I spoke to a similarly constituted group in Minneapolis in 2007...
Kidney Paired Donation Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2010

8:00 a.m. Welcome and Opening Remarks, Chris Pricco, Chief Operating Officer, Complex Medical
Conditions, OptumHealth Care Solutions

8:05 a.m. Introduction and Conference Overview, Dennis Irwin, MD, National Medical Director, Transplant Solutions, Complex Medical Conditions, OptumHealth Care Solutions

8:15 a.m. Kidney Transplantation: Alternative Donors, Lloyd E. Ratner, MD, New York-Presb - Columbia
Campus

8:35 a.m. The Unmet Need for Kidney Transplantation as Viewed by the National Kidney Foundation,
Bryan Becker, MD, University of Illinois-Chicago

8:55 a.m. The OptumHealth/UnitedHealthcare Experience with End Stage Renal Disease, Kidney
Transplantation and the Unmet Need, F. Gregory Grillo MD, National Medical Director, Kidney
Resource Services, OptumHealth Care Solutions

9:15 a.m. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Pilot, Kenneth Andreoni, The Ohio State
University Hospitals

Representation and Overview from UNOS Coordinating Centers

9:45 a.m. Ruthanne L Hanto RN MPH, New England Program for Kidney Exchange

10:00 a.m. Dorry Segev, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins Hospital

10:15 a.m. Michael Rees, MD, PhD, Alliance for Paired Donation

10:30 a.m. Jeffrey L. Veale MD, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center

Successful Single Center Experience with Paired Kidney Donation

10:45 a.m. John Friedewald, MD, Northwestern University Hospital

11:00 a.m. Adam Bingaman, MD, PhD, Texas Transplant Institute

11:30 a.m. National Kidney Registry, Garet Hil, National Kidney Registry (Invited)

11:45 a.m. Kidney Paired Donation from the Donor’s Perspective, John Milner, MD, Loyola University
Medical Center

12:00 p.m. The OPO perspective, Speaker TBD

12:15 p.m. Summary of the recent Living Kidney Donor Follow-Up: State of the Art and Future Directions
conference, Alan Leichtman, MD, University of Michigan

12:30 p.m. National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP): 23 Years of Experience in Establishing and
 Managing a Successful Program for Matching Willing Donors to Recipients, Jeffrey W. Chell,
MD, Chief Executive Officer, National Marrow Donor Program

1:30 p.m. Facilitated Discussion, Clifford Goodman, PhD, Vice President, The Lewin Group

4:00 p.m. Closing Remarks

Note: OptumHealth reserves the right to make any necessary changes to this program. Efforts will be made to keep presentations as scheduled. However, unforeseen circumstances may result in the substitution of faculty or content. Last Updated: 10/05/10

Single-hospital kidney exchanges in Texas and Illinois

A recent letter to the editor in the New England Journal of Medicine reports on the kidney exchange ("kidney paired donation") program at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital in San Antonio, TX.

Bingaman AW, Wright FH, Murphey CL., "Kidney paired donation in live-donor kidney transplantation," N Engl J Med. 2010 Sep 9;363(11):1091-2.

"Our center established a KPD program enrolling all consenting recipient candidates who had incompatible donors as well as compatible pairs with donors over the age of 45 years. Since we initiated the program in March 2008, we have performed 83 KPD procedures, including 22 two-way and 13 three-way exchanges.
...
"If the productivity of our KPD program were to be replicated on a national level, it would potentially result in approximately 2000 additional
live-donor transplantations annually and reduce the number of patients on the waiting list. The increased use of this procedure would also probably avert many difficult desensitization therapies. No recent advance in transplantation has achieved such an apparent increase in access to live-donor transplantation, especially in sensitized patients.
"We believe that all transplantation centers should consider the development of an effective KPD program in order to give patients with incompatible donors a full range of options to achieve successful transplantation."

And here's a news report of another exchange at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
All eight patients OK after four-way kidney transplant (Chicago Sun Times, Sept. 23, 2010)

"Arlene Hoffman was Jane Delimba's postal carrier for only about three months. But when Hoffman bumped into Delimba at a Wal-Mart seven years later and learned she needed a kidney transplant, Hoffman didn't hesitate to offer one of her own.

"The two weren't a compatible match.

"Still, Hoffman's generosity helped make it possible for four people, including Delimba, to receive kidney transplants last week in what's known as a "four-way paired exchange."

"In simultaneous operations that took place last Thursday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, four living donors each gave up a kidney, and four people whose kidneys were failing each got one. All eight patients, ranging in age from 28 to 74, are doing well."

And from another story about that exchange: "Northwestern Memorial transplant surgeons performed their first paired exchange in 2006. To date, the hospital has completed 38 paired exchange transplants. "

Misc. kidney transplantation

In Texas, where everything is the biggest, the Texas Transplant Physician Group says they are the biggest "in Texas AND the United States."
"Our Living Paired Donor Kidney Transplant team made history in November, 2010, with the world's largest paired donor kidney transplant donor chain--with 16 transplants completed over three days. The 17th donor's "bridge" kidney was used to start another chain in December--extending the record-breaking chain to 23--still the largest single center kidney donor chain in the world! The kidney recipients ranged in age from 17 to 69 and all were transplanted with fully matched kidneys without the need for desensitization therapy. Dr. Adam Bingaman, Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Surgeon and Director of the Live Donor Kidney Transplant Program with Texas Transplant Physician Group is planning to extend the chain further in January, 2011.

"Read the local and national coverage this donor chain generated in our Kidney News section."

*********************

A story in the LA Times about a procedural error gives some insight into transplant procedures: Wrong patient got kidney at USC
"USC University Hospital halted kidney transplants last month after a kidney was accidentally transplanted into the wrong patient, according to a spokesman for the program that coordinates organ transplants in Los Angeles.

"The patient who received the wrong kidney escaped harm, apparently because the kidney happened to be an acceptable match, said Bryan Stewart, spokesman for the program, OneLegacy, which was notified of the error by the hospital.

"The hospital, which performs about two transplants a week, confirmed in a statement that it had voluntarily halted transplants Jan. 29 after a "process error" was discovered. The hospital did not detail the nature of the error and declined to answer questions. It said no patients were harmed.
...
"In general, immediately after a kidney is removed from a donor, it is placed in a plastic container with a screw-on lid. That container, labeled with an identification number, is then placed inside three sterile plastic bags, which are placed on ice in another container.


"The nurses in the operating room and the surgeon must check for the ID number on the kidney and compare that with the patient ID number," Klintmalm said.

"It is the operating room surgeon's responsibility to make sure the numbers match," he said. "You sign forms before you start the surgery."

****************
Flip Klijn writes: "Recently, several towns in the Netherlands started discussing the possibility to ask citizens directly whether they are willing to sign a donor form (i.e., to give permission for organ transplants at the time of decease) when they visit the city hall to pick up a driver's license or a passport. In Amsterdam, both left-wing and right-wing political parties seem to agree that this is a good idea: http://www.metronieuws.nl/regionaal/gemeente-amsterdam-ja-tegen-nieuw-plan-donoren/SrZkcu!QfBmXR4HMGY/

(There are already similar proposals in Rotterdam and The Hague. And probably for the US this is not something new.) In another city (Breda) they stopped asking "because citizens apparently did not like to be asked" (according to the city hall): http://www.bredavandaag.nl/nieuws/politiek/40539/2010-12-14/gemeente-breda-negeert-motie-d66

Yale SOM celebrates Vahideh Manshadi on the benefits of scale in kidney exchange

In Yale Insights (from Yale SOM):

Kidney Exchange Registries Should Collaborate to Save More Lives
VAHIDEH MANSHADI

"The results were surprising, says Manshadi. “We didn’t find any evidence that higher-frequency match runs were reducing the overall number of transplants by depleting the pool of potential donors. The total number of transplants remained stable.”

"What the researchers did find, however, was an unexpectedly high number of patients in both programs whose antibodies made them hard to match—what are called sensitized patients.

“The majority of patients in these programs are sensitized,” Manshadi says. “These patients have such high levels of antibodies in their blood that they are more likely to reject a donor organ. Frequent or infrequent matching will have little effect on them because it’s so much harder to find a donor whose kidney they can accept.”

"The best way of improving the outlook for these patients, says Manshadi, is to ensure they are prioritized when searching for matches. That, and find new ways of increasing—and diversifying—the number and range of donors coming into exchange programs. "
*********

And here's the original paper:

Effect of match‐run frequencies on the number of transplants and waiting times in kidney exchange
Itai Ashlagi  Adam Bingaman  Maximilien Burq  Vahideh Manshadi  David Gamarnik  Cathi Murphey  Alvin E. Roth  Marc L. Melcher  Michael A. Rees, American Journal of Transplantation, Volume18, Issue5, May 2018, Pages 1177-1186
First published: 31 October 2017 https://doi.org/10.1111/ajt.14566

Abstract
Numerous kidney exchange (kidney paired donation [KPD]) registries in the United States have gradually shifted to high‐frequency match‐runs, raising the question of whether this harms the number of transplants. We conducted simulations using clinical data from 2 KPD registries—the Alliance for Paired Donation, which runs multihospital exchanges, and Methodist San Antonio, which runs single‐center exchanges—to study how the frequency of match‐runs impacts the number of transplants and the average waiting times. We simulate the options facing each of the 2 registries by repeated resampling from their historical pools of patient‐donor pairs and nondirected donors, with arrival and departure rates corresponding to the historical data. We find that longer intervals between match‐runs do not increase the total number of transplants, and that prioritizing highly sensitized patients is more effective than waiting longer between match‐runs for transplanting highly sensitized patients. While we do not find that frequent match‐runs result in fewer transplanted pairs, we do find that increasing arrival rates of new pairs improves both the fraction of transplanted pairs and waiting times.

How not to communicate about kidney exchange

Kidney exchange, aka kidney paired donation is a great opportunity, but it has to be communicated to patients and donors. The state of the art is practiced by surgeons like Dr. Adam Bingaman in San Antonio, who makes sure that patients and donors hear about all options before they even begin to be tested for compatibility. That way, if they are incompatible, they're not surprised to hear they still have options.

Other hospitals only mention kidney exchange after testing donors and finding them incompatible with their intended recipient. Here's a few sentences of a story that makes that clear:

"After testing, Hendon received a letter from UCLA saying she was not a good match.

“I was so sad, almost devastated,” she said. “Then at the bottom of the letter, in tiny letters, it mentioned I could still be involved in a kidney exchange. I called them the next day and they seemed surprised that I still wanted to do it and started the process.”

"Once she was approved, it was not long before she was notified that they had a recipient waiting for her kidney."
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The donor in question participated in this nonsimultaneous extended altruistic donor (NEAD) chain.

How often should a kidney exchange network run matches? (Often, it turns out...)

Forthcoming in the American Journal of Transplantation:

The effect of match-run frequencies on the number of transplants and waiting times in kidney exchange

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• Accepted manuscript online: 31 October 2017Full publication history
• DOI: 10.1111/ajt.14566  View/save citation
• Cited by (CrossRef): 0 articlesCheck for updates
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• This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1111/ajt.14566

Abstract

Numerous kidney exchange (kidney paired donor (KPD)) registries in the U.S have gradually shifted to high frequency match-runs, raising the question of whether this harms the number of transplants. We conduct simulations using clinical data from two KPD registries—the Alliance for Paired Donation, which runs multi-hospital exchanges, and Methodist San Antonio, which runs single center exchanges–to study how the frequency of match-runs impacts the number of transplants and the average waiting times. We simulate the options facing each of the two registries by repeated resampling from their historical pools of patient-donor pairs and non-directed donors, with arrival and departure rates corresponding to the historical data. We find that longer intervals between match-runs do not increase the total number of transplants, and that prioritizing highly sensitized patients is more effective than waiting longer between match-runs for transplanting highly sensitized patients. While we do not find that frequent match-runs result in fewer transplanted pairs we do find that increasing arrival rates of new pairs improves both the fraction of transplanted pairs and waiting times.
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Update, Dec. 5: the paper is now in it's final form, early online, and you should be able to see the whole thing here.