Extending Kidney Exchange

The Extending Kidney Exchange project was established to increase access to lifesaving kidney transplants worldwide. Our team is working to increase the number of kidney transplants performed annually through kidney exchange by (1) building exchange capacity in Brazil and India, countries where willing donors cannot currently choose to donate a kidney without an intended recipient, and (2) utilizing deceased donor-initiated chains (DDIC) in the U.S.

While a transplant candidate can wait years to receive a deceased donor’s kidney, kidney exchange, also known as kidney paired donation, allows willing but incompatible living donor and recipient pairs to swap kidneys with other incompatible pairs. In so doing, each recipient receives a compatible transplant, and each donor overcomes their incompatibility, thus unlocking between 20-30% of additional transplants.

• In Brazil, our team has launched a kidney exchange program within Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Juiz de Fora and Hospital Clínicas FMUSP in São Paulo and aims to expand to facilitating exchanges between these centers and others with the ultimate goal of kidney exchange transitioning from a research project to an officially approved practice in Brazil.

• In India, our team has deployed kidney matching software and resources for growth to the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Center and Dr. HL Trivedi Institute of Transplantation Sciences (IKDRC-ITS) to support kidney exchange programs. We aim to develop an evidence base for potential updates to organ transplantation laws that expand criteria for who can give and receive lifesaving kidneys.

• In the U.S., we are working with Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to test the use of deceased donor-initiated chains (DDIC) so as to generate hundreds of additional life-saving transplants each year that are not currently supported by today's practice of utilizing a deceased donor kidney to save the life of a single person on a transplant waitlist.