Is Artificial Intelligence The New Logistics Technology For Organ Transportation? Posted on : Jul 24 - 2021

In the United States, an estimated 114,000 people were waiting for organ transplants, and only 30% of those got their organs on time in 2019. According to Kaiser Health News and Reveal from the Center of Investigative Reporting, nearly 170 organs could not be transplanted. Almost 370 endured near misses with delays of two hours or more because of transportation problems.

According to the American Transplant Foundation, 20 people die each day because they do not receive their lifesaving organs in time, making the number of annual deaths greater than 40,000.

Patti Niles is CEO of Southwest Transplant Alliance, a non-profit organ procurement organization. Niles says that geography is always their most significant issue when it comes to transporting organs.

“The distance that organs can travel before they are transplanted varies by organ-based on how long they can stay outside of the body and successfully be transplanted,” said Niles. “Either in a temperature-controlled environment or on a perfusion pump that artificially simulates body functioning for the organ, that time can vary from several hours to up to 2 days.”

Niles says that because organs travel via charter plane, commercial flight, or courier more frequently than ever before, that has resulted in increased risk in the transportation of organs.

“Because our organization is committed to saving lives and providing healthy organs for transplant, we are looking to innovate through any transportation challenges that might be a barrier to fulfilling our mission,” added Niles.

“We have also sought out technology partners that have devices to regulate the temperature of the organ or artificially pump the organ so that the amount of time it can be outside of the body is longer,” said Niles. “This gives us more time for transportation.”

Niles adds that the Alliance has seen recent improvements through GPS technology that provides tracking and alerts if there are disruptions along the transportation route. View More