Transportation of Organs by Air: Safety, Quality, and Sustainability Criteria

The outcomes of organ transplantation activities are greatly affected by the ability to haul organs and medical teams quickly and safely. Organ allocation and usage criteria have greatly improved over time, whereas the same result has not been achieved so far from the transport point of view. Safety and the highest level of service and efficiency must be reached to grant transplant recipients the healthiest outcome.

The Italian National Transplant Centre (CNT), in partnership with the regions and the University of Bologna, has promoted a thorough analysis of all stages of organ transportation logistics chains to produce homogeneous and shared guidelines throughout the national territory, capable of ensuring safety, reliability, and sustainability at the highest levels.

The mapping of all 44 transplant centers and the pertaining airport network has been implemented. An analysis of technical requirements among organ shipping agents at both national and international level has been promoted. A national campaign of real-time monitoring of organ transport activities at all stages of the supply chain has been implemented. Parameters investigated have been hospital and region of both origin and destination, number and type of organs involved, transport type (with or without medical team), stations of arrival and departure, and shipping agents, as well as actual times of activities involved.

National guidelines have been issued to select organ storage units and shipping agents on the basis of evaluation of efficiency, reliability, and equipment with reference to organ type and ischemia time. Guidelines provide EU-level standards on technical equipment of aircrafts, professional requirements of shipping agencies and cabin crew, and requirements on service provision, including pricing criteria.

The introduction in the Italian legislation of guidelines issuing minimum requirements on topics such as the medical team, packaging, labeling, safety and integrity, identification, real-time monitoring of temperature, and traceability of the organ during the logistics chain is deemed a valid response to the necessity of improving safety, reliability, and sustainability of organ transplantation activities in Italy.