OPTN to Implement New Process for Patient Status Verification

To: primary program administrators, primary physicians, primary surgeons, primary data coordinators, OPTN representatives, and transplant program directors.

Beginning in August, UNOS Data Quality will introduce a new process for verifying with transplant programs the current status (living or dead) of certain candidates waitlisted and recipients transplanted and/or followed post-transplant at the transplant program. This process will involve use of data from other sources to supplement patient status information known to the transplant program. Information in some of these sources must be confirmed before being incorporated in the OPTN database. UNOS will contact the designated Primary Program Administrator and Primary Data Coordinator at the applicable transplant programs by secure email and will provide relevant information for each patient, as well as instructions for making the updates. For additional details, please read the article on the OPTN website: http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/news/newsDetail.asp?id=1607