Computer Algorithm to Rescue Donation After Circulatory Death (DCD) Organs
Published 2 days ago · 5 min read
Only 6–7% of patients who qualified to donate organs were approached for donation at this quaternary care center. Potentially contributory are inefficiencies in occupied intensive care unit staff making phone calls to the OPO to initiate donor approach. Our findings endorse an algorithm for automated donor evaluation and referral as a feasible solution.
Background
Organ transplantation is an impactful use-case for AI. We hypothesize that organs are being missed by donation after circulatory death (DCD) workflows due to inefficiencies and underuse of ex-vivo perfusion systems. This study quantifies how many thoracic organ donors are being missed and proposes a computer algorithm to address the gap.
Methods
This study analyzed 2,233 deaths at a medical center between June 2020 and June 2022. Exclusion criteria were used to identify potential heart/lung donors. These were cross-referenced with OPO data to find missed evaluations. Interviews with ICU staff revealed workflow challenges and informed the algorithm’s design.
- Cross-referenced 2233 deaths with OPO referral data.
- Identified 265 cardiac and 280 lung-qualified donors.
- Only 18 patients were approached for transplant.
“Programming is an extremely creative profession. It's logic-based creativity.”
Conclusion
Optimizing donor referral workflow could exponentially increase transplant success. Our findings endorse a computer algorithm that automates evaluation and referral. Future studies will implement and clinically validate this system to reduce missed opportunities and save lives.
3 Comments
Ronald Richards
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Jacob Jones
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Eleanor Pena
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