Senior health experts have called for the federal government to separate the technology and policy arms of the nonprofit responsible for operating the U.S. national organ transplant network, citing concerns over its failure to modernize IT systems, including a key software component called DonorNet.
Splitting the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) contract, which United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) has won for 36 years, into two contracts covering IT requirements and regulatory responsibilities would end a monopoly disincentivizing regular system updates, experts say…
“I don’t think a monopoly is really serving us well, so I do think we need to split up. And I think we need to engage experts. There are experts that exist for a reason, and I think UNOS very much has tried to do everything and ended up being the master of nothing. And that’s a real problem for our patients,” Dr. Jayme Locke, director of the Department of Transplantation at the University of Alabama Heersink School of Medicine, told FedScoop at a Senate hearing Wednesday… Read the full article here.
