October 17, 2024
HRSA Announces Overhaul of OPTN Board of Directors
In September, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced the overhaul of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) – the governing board that develops national organ allocation policy.
The OPTN Board is now separately incorporated and independent from the Board of long-time OPTN contractor, the United Network for Organ Sharing. HRSA has awarded an OPTN Board Support contract to American Institutes for Research to support the newly incorporated OPTN Board of Directors.
These critical actions to better serve patients by breaking up the monopoly that ran the nation’s organ allocation system are part of the OPTN modernization plan announced by HRSA in March 2023. Prior to these steps, the national body responsible for developing organ allocation policy for the country, the OPTN and the corporate entity contracted to implement the policy UNOS, shared the exact same Board or Directors.
The new board support contractor will be accountable to HRSA and will organize a special election for a new OPTN Board of Directors with a focus on eliminating conflicts of interest and ensuring that data, evidence, and the voices of clinical leaders, scientific experts, patients, and donor families are driving action and accountability. Moving forward, no member of the OPTN Board can sit on an OPTN vendor’s board of directors.
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