Organ Utilisation Development Team

Members of the OUDT include:

Chris Callaghan
Associate Medical Director, Organ Utilisation
NHS Blood and Transplant

Diana Garcia Saez
Clinical Lead for Cardiothoracic Organ Utilisation
NHS Blood and Transplant

Carrie Scuffell
Transplant Development Manager
Organ & Tissue Donation & Transplantation
NHS Blood and Transplant

Liz Armstrong
Head of Transplant Development
NHS Blood and Transplant

Laura Barton
Programme Manager
Organ & Tissue Donation & Transplantation
NHS Blood and Transplant

Jenny Mehew
Principal Statistician
Organ Donation & Transplantation Studies
NHS Blood and Transplant

Aaron Ranasinghe
Lead Heart CLU
NHS Blood and Transplant

Vicky Gerovasili
Lead Lung CLU
NHS Blood and Transplant

Nick Inston
Lead Kidney CLU
NHS Blood and Transplant

David van Dellen
Lead Pancreas CLU
NHS Blood and Transplant

Anya Adair
Lead Liver CLU
NHS Blood and Transplant

The main aims of the first phase were to:

• identify and reduce local and national barriers to optimal organ utilisation
• improve collaboration within and across transplant units
• deliver organ utilisation improvement strategies at local unit level, e.g. identifying and reducing inequities in access to listing and transplantation

Subsequent iterations of the scheme followed between 2021 and 2023 and include the following achievements:

• full complement of local, organ-specific centre CLUs established
• 5 National Organ Lead CLUs recruited
• offer review schemes recommenced for kidney and pancreas and initiated for liver, heart and lung
• annual National Organ Utilisation Conference (NOUC) established
• national survey on Interventions for Organ Utilisation distributed

In 2024, the OUDT focussed on strategy, to include the following areas:

• CLU role development, efficiency and funding
• Offer review meetings
• Engagement and communication with the wider transplant community

The following vision and mission statements were created:

• OUDT Vision - Supporting colleagues to make the best use of every precious organ offered, to achieve maximum positive impact on patients.
• OUDT Mission - We work together to increase the number of people positively impacted by increased organ utilisation, through the dissemination of data and information, and the sharing of knowledge and expertise across our clinical community.

The bar chart shows that there were 50 local CLUs, 5 organ lead CLUs and 5 organ communities as of September 2023.

Of the CLU posts filled in September 2023, 27 were for kidney, 10 for liver, 10 for pancreas, 7 for heart and 6 for lung.

These are organ-specific definitions of donors whose organs where the expectation is that they are most likely to be utilised. All HQD definitions have been agreed with NHSBT Advisory Groups. Organs will need to meet all criteria to meet the definition of HQD.

HQD criteria required for all organs:

• No history of malignancy
• No evidence of HBsAg +ve
• No evidence of HCVAb +ve
• No evidence of HIV +ve
  
  

Organ-specific HQD criteria:

Kidney HQD

• HTLV -ve
• Aged >10 and <50 years
• No history of hypertension
• No history of diabetes
• No urinary infections in the current admission
  
  

 Liver HQD 

• DBD donor
• Age >15 and <60 years
• BMI <30
• Serum ALT <150
• ITU stay <10 days
• Bilirubin <25
  
  

Pancreas HQD

• HTLV -ve
• Age >15 and <50 years
• BMI <27
• ITU stay <10 days
• No cardiac arrest of more than 60 minutes
  
  

Heart HQD

• HTLV -ve
• Age >16 and <50 years
• No past medical history of hypertension, diabetes, current or past smoker, cardiac disease
• Echocardiogram: LVEF ≥ 50% and IVS ≤13
• No adrenaline, dopamine and dobutamine infusions at the time of offer
  
  

Lung HQD

• HTLV -ve
• Age >16 and <55 years
• Smoking history: age <30 or smoking ≤ 20 packs/year
• pO2 ≥40 kPA with FiO2 1 and PEEP 5 at offering
• Mechanical ventilation ≤7 days

The next NOUC will be held on 16 September 2024 at the Education Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Striving for Synergy’.

NOUC 2024 information and registration

The event was held in person at King's College, London on 19 May 2023. The theme was 'Making the Change Happen'. High profile keynote speakers were attracted, and the opportunity to network in person was appreciated.

NOUC 2023 presentation slides

The second NOUC was held virtually on 27 May 2022 with the theme 'New Perspectives in Organ Utilisation'.

NOUC 2022 presentation slides

The inaugural NOUC was held on 20 May 2021 with the theme 'Excellence in Organ Utilisation'.

NOUC 2021 presentation slides