Past and Present Policy Efforts in Achieving Racial Equity in Kidney Transplantation

Inequities in transplant access for underrepresented minorities and people of low socioeconomic status persist. The central principle to organ allocation, the "Final Rule" is grounded on "equitable allocation of cadaveric organs," regardless of background, including race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status, and there have been ongoing previous and current efforts in achieving the goal of equity in access to transplantation.

Some of these disparities are caused by impeded access to the transplant waiting list (i.e., lack of referral to transplantation, socioeconomic constraints) and are somewhat beyond the purview of Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN/UNOS) policy. This paper examines past and present OPTN/UNOS policy efforts that strive to make access to kidney transplantation more racially equitable.

Past and current policy efforts have brought the transplant community closer to the goal of achieving equity in access to transplantation. More comprehensive data collection may aid in further understanding existing challenges.