OPTN/UNOS Public Comment Open
Friday, February 8, 2019
OPTN/UNOS public comment is now open through March 22, 2019. As a member of the transplant community, you are encouraged to post your thoughts on the OPTN website during the public comment period, as both individual and organization comments are considered by the sponsoring committee during the policy development process. There are now ten proposals offered, with a recent addition that is focused on MELD exception scores during the National Liver Review Board transition.
During the public comment period, UNOS offers and records national webinars to educate members on the proposals. For information on these webinars, click here.
The AST encourages all of its members to provide comments through their Communities of Practice (COPs). The COPs carefully review the proposals and refer all comments from their members to the AST Board. The comments are then reviewed by the AST’s OPTN/UNOS Policy Committee, which develops a draft Society response for board review and approval. The Society response is then submitted to UNOS.
The AST recognizes the challenges associated with developing unified opinions and strongly encourages AST member feedback in the comment process as it works to develop a Society response for Board approval. If you would like to also submit your individual comments to AST in addition to OPTN/UNOS for consideration as part of this process, please email them to scovington@myast.org with the subject line PUBLIC COMMENT by February 25 for inclusion in the Policy Committee review.