Global kidney chains

Afshin Nikzad; Mohammad Akbarpour; Michael A Rees; Alvin E Roth

doi:10.1073/pnas.2106652118

Global kidney chains

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Sep 7;118(36):e2106652118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2106652118.

Authors

Afshin Nikzad¹, Mohammad Akbarpour², Michael A Rees^{3

4}, Alvin E Roth⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Economics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089.
² Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94305.
³ Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation, Toledo, OH 43604.
⁴ Department of Urology, University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, OH 43614.
⁵ Department of Economics, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94305 alroth@stanford.edu.

Abstract

Kidney failure is a worldwide scourge, made more lethal by the shortage of transplants. We propose a way to organize kidney exchange chains internationally between middle-income countries with financial barriers to transplantation and high-income countries with many hard to match patients and patient-donor pairs facing lengthy dialysis. The proposal involves chains of exchange that begin in the middle-income country and end in the high-income country. We also propose a way of financing such chains using savings to US health care payers.

Keywords: chains; global kidney exchange; kidney exchange; market design; transplantation.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Developed Countries
Developing Countries
Humans
Kidney Transplantation*
Tissue Donors*
Tissue and Organ Procurement / economics
Tissue and Organ Procurement / methods*