Kidney Transplantation Committee

The Kidney Transplantation Committee is charged with considering medical, scientific, and ethical aspects related to kidney organ procurement, distribution, and allocation. The Committee considers both the broad implications and the specific member situations relating to kidney issues and policies. The goal of the Committee's work is to develop evidence-based policies aimed at reducing the burden of renal disease in transplant patients (candidates and recipients), increasing kidney utilization, improving access to kidney transplantation as appropriate, and improving the health outcomes of kidney transplant recipients.

Featured reports

  • Two new kidney policy monitoring reports available (9/18/2024)
  • Deceased kidney donors recovered increase six-months post-implementation minimum donor criteria for kidney biopsies (12/19/2023)
  • Early monitoring report shows Black kidney candidates are receiving waiting time modifications after implementation of new policies (12/4/2023)

Current projects

Review

Implemented

  • Update Kidney Paired Donation Policy
  • Align OPTN KPD Blood Type Matching Policy and Establish Donor Re-Evaluation Requirements
  • Modify Waiting Time for Candidates Affected by Race-Inclusive Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) Calculations (1/2023)
  • Establish Minimum Kidney Donor Criteria to Require Biopsy
  • Standardize Kidney Biopsy Reporting and Data Collection (9/2023)
  • Distribution of Kidneys and Pancreata from Alaska (12/2019)
  • Establish OPTN Requirement for Race- Neutral eGFR Calculations
  • Addressing Medically Urgent Candidates in New Kidney Allocation Policy (12/2019)
  • Eliminate the use of DSA and Region in kidney allocation policy (11/2019)
  • Improving en bloc kidney allocation 2 (7/2017)
  • Improving dual kidney allocation (7/2017)
  • Simultaneous liver-kidney allocation 2016 (1/2016)
  • Proposal for Informed Consent for Kidney Paired Donation (9/2014)

Committee members

Chair

Dr. Jim Kim
Keck Hospital of USC

Vice Chair

Dr. Arpita Basu
Emory University Hospital

Liaison

Kayla Temple
UNOS Employee
kayla.temple@unos.org

MembersOrganizationPositionEnd Term Date
Kristen M AdamsUniversity of Minnesota Medical Center, FairviewRegion 7 Representative6/30/2027
Prince AnandMedical University of South CarolinaAt Large6/30/2028
Toni BowlingMary Hitchcock Memorial HospitalAt Large6/30/2027
Ms. Leigh Ann BurgessPrisma Health Greenville Memorial HospitalRegion 11 Representative6/30/2027
Dr. Jesse L CoxMolecular Diagnostics Laboratory at The Nebraska Medical CenterRegion 8 Representative6/30/2026
Patrick O GeeGeneral Public Region 2At Large6/30/2026
Ms. Tania A HouleLegacy of HopeAt Large6/30/2026
Dr. Christine S HwangParkland Health and Hospital SystemRegion 4 Representative6/30/2028
Dr. John G LunzLifeLink Transplantation Immunology LaboratoryAt Large6/30/2026
Dr. Marc MelcherStanford Health CareRegion 5 Representative6/30/2027
Dr. Jason A RollsChristiana Care Health ServicesRegion 2 Representative6/30/2026
Dr. Reza F SaidiState University of New York Upstate Medical UniversityRegion 9 Representative6/30/2027
Eloise SalmonUniversity of Michigan Medical CenterRegion 10 Representative6/30/2027
Dr. Chandrasekar SanthanakrishnanSwedish Medical CenterRegion 6 Representative6/30/2026
Aparna SharmaGeneral Public Region 3Region 3 Representative6/30/2027
Dr. Charles V StromNew England Organ BankRegion 1 Representative6/30/2026
Curtis WarfieldGeneral Public Region 10At Large6/30/2027
Date Last Reviewed: