Prioritization: Candidate Selection and Organ Allocation Systems
Since the need for organs usually is higher than the supply of suitable organs, a process of determining which candidates should receive a particular organ is necessary. This means that a selection of who should be declined also is necessary; in other words, a rationing is required. This chapter uses the term candidate selection to describe this process, while the term allocation is used to describe the process of choosing which of the selected candidates should be chosen for transplantation the moment a suitable organ is available. To understand current systems for organ allocation and prioritization in lung transplantation, it is helpful to consider how it all started. The most applied criterion for prioritization of candidates for lung transplantation is the estimation of medical benefit. Eurotransplant was founded in 1967 and is an organ exchange network.
