Geographic Variation in Donor Hearts

Donor heart quality is an important determinant of post-transplant outcomes.   Transplant centers evaluate the donor heart based upon many quality factors or characteristics including age, weight, blood type, high or low blood pressure, medical history, social history, and reason for death.  Donor heart utilization varies across the United States based upon surgeon and transplant program preferences.

Analysis of donor heart utilization based upon quality

Using advanced research techniques using GIS and data from the United Network from Organ Sharing, it is evident that regional donor heart utilization based upon quality varies significantly.  Better quality donor hearts shown in the graph in blue are more likely to be transplanted than hearts than others with less quality, shown below in orange.

Hibernicor understands that this quality disparity is an opportunity for improved donor heart preservation and is the driving force behind the research and development into new technological solutions, such as the Organ Map.