UNOS DonateLife

October 6, 1998

UNOS Team Authors JAMA Article

An article on the 1997 Center-Specific Graft and Patient Survival Rates Report written by a team of UNOS Scientific Advisory Committee members and staff scientists appears in the October 7 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The article is one of the major highlights of this week's JAMA and also triggered an editorial entitled "Organ Transplantation--Barriers, Outcomes, and Evolving Policies" authored by Dr. Edgar Milford of the New England Organ Bank and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. To quote Dr. Milford, "Untimately, organ transplantation is evolving toward policies based on outcomes data but tempered by the wishes of the public--the best of what any system of national health care could hope to become."

The article shows that graft and patient survival improved significantly over time for almost all organs. The Center-Specific Report is available online.

"JAMA's publication of this article recognizes that UNOS is leading the way in data collection and medical outcome analysis," said O. Patrick Daily, Ph.D., UNOS assistant executive director of operations. "Nowhere in medicine do patients and professionals have access to center-specific outcome information on a single mode of medical treatment." It also points out the leadership of the UNOS Board in supporting efforts for outcomes reports--a one of a kind event in American medicine.

Members of the study team are: Hung-Mo Lin, Ph.D.; H. Myron Kauffman, MD; Mauren A. McBride, Ph.D.; Darcy B. Davies, MS; John D. Rosendale, MS; Carol M. Smith, MA; Erick B. Edwards, Ph.D.; O. Patrick Daily, Ph.D.; James Kirklin, MD; Charles F. Shield, MD; and Lawrence G. Hunsicker, MD.