The Kidney Transplant Process Model

The Kidney Transplant Process Model (KTPM) was created to demonstrate the kidney transplant process from initial placement on the waiting list to life post-transplant. The KTPM focuses on the effects of donor availability on the entire transplant process with a specific concentration on ethnicity. The model was designed as a tool for analyzing the transplant process and its outcomes, supplemented with data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) database and reports. Experiments with this model have shown that changes to the process are necessary to keep the list from increasing. While increases in the availability of donors are not likely to entirely eliminate the waiting list in the near term, these solutions could help to decrease the size of the list. A specific increase in living donor transplants in minorities would also help to decrease the size of the waiting list for kidney transplants.