ACCORD

Organ transplantation (OT) benefits about 28,000 patients in the European Union EU yearly, but the availability of organs does not meet the OT needs, unequally met by MS, mainly due to variability in living and deceased donation rates. This heterogeneous scenario and the need to establish a common framework for quality and safety of human organs intended for OT, has led to two EU initiatives in the field: Directive 2010/53/EU (the Directive) and an Action Plan, both to be addressed by this Joint Action (JA) through intervention in 3 areas: live donor registries, cooperation between intensive care units (ICUs) and donor transplant coordinators (DTCs) and twinning. Live donation activity is increasing in the EU to better meet the OT needs. But the live donor faces risks which make mandatory an appropriate framework of donor care in compliance with universal standards. These include the development of a live donor registry, as set down in the Directive, essential to build evidence on the consequences of donating an organ during lifetime, but not yet available in many MS. The main reason justifying differences in deceased donation rates across countries is failure to identify potential organ donors. A close cooperation between ICU professionals, dealing with end-of-life care, and DTC, is fundamental to possible donors becoming actual donors, as put forward in the WHO critical pathway. Nevertheless, the integration of donation in end-of-life care remains a challenge. Providing recommendations on how to build this integration, based on a benchmarking approach, has proven effective in different countries, but must be respectful with differences in end-of-life patterns of care. Finally, international cooperation is per se considered an effective tool to improve performance in donation and OT practices. Twinning activities may promote that the experience and knowledge developed by one MS is transferred to others who request such transference and will implement the advance willingly.

Download: ACHIEVING COMPREHENSIVE COORDINATION IN ORGAN DONATION THROUGHOUT THE EUROPEAN UNION

European Commission Projects database (http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/projects/database.html?prjno=20112102)

European Commission DG Health and Consumers (http://ec.europa.eu/health/blood_tissues_organs/projects/index_en.htm)