A personal computer network system for equitable allocation of cadaver organs

We developed a personal computer network system for the equitable allocation of cadaveric organs. This network consists of a host computer (IBM PS55 model 5570 T) and various kinds of personal computers manufactured by many different computer makers in Japan. The merits of our personal computer network include lower cost and an easy access to the host computer from all the centres participating in this network while using their own favourite personal computers. Among the programs made for allocating cadaveric organs, we present in this paper the program for livers. This program was developed with a modified version of the logic developed by Starzl et al. The grade modification for the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in the United States was used as the basis for classification of medical urgency. Our program weighed the factors of medical urgency, compatibility of blood group and waiting time. Distance factors were omitted because of the smaller area of the network compared to that of UNOS. This computer network would be linked to other computer networks in creating a national organ procurement and transplant network in Japan, in order to help them to catch up with other advanced transplant countries. Such an equal and objective computer system should allow organ transplantation to become more widely accepted.