Kidner – A Worldwide Decentralised Matching System for Kidney Transplants

Abstract

Individuals suffering from kidney failure today face significant challenges in order to obtain a transplant.  They are placed on a waiting list and ranked by priority in hope that a kidney from a deceased donor is a transplant match. They do have another option: a living donor; someone they know, family or friend, willing to give them a kidney. These people may not be a transplant match, however there is a solution, a “Kidney Exchange” or a “Kidney Paired Donation”. In these programs, if two mismatched pairs (living donor and kidney recipient) can be grouped together so that they become transplant matches, both kidney failure patients can receive a kidney.  While a great solution, these programs have a significant pitfall.  They are limited to the specific registry regions participating in their program. The Kidner project was developed to help these exchange programs better detect life-saving opportunities and enable more people to access kidney transplants.