Dear Regional OPTN Members and Volunteers,

On behalf of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), I am writing to announce that the OPTN’s summer public comment period will begin August 27 and run through October 1.

During a Board Leadership meeting held on July 15, 2025, OPTN Board Officers determined that the updated date range will give the new Board of Directors time to fully review and prioritize the anticipated policy proposals from the Policy Oversight Committee (POC) following its meeting on July 24, 2025. The previous schedule–holding Executive Committee (ExCom) review the week after the POC decision meeting, followed by immediate public comment–does not allow Board leadership adequate time for thorough policy review for alignment with available resources.

In addition, instead of limiting the review and vote on policy proposals from POC to only the ExCom, the new Board leadership is opening up the review and vote to the entire Board of Directors. The full Board will discuss the policy proposals on August 1st and then vote on August 21st. The current Board needs time to prioritize policy proposals against available resources rather than releasing them all for public comment.

Finally, to ensure input from all OPTN regions during the open public comment period, we will reschedule the four regional meetings occurring less than a week before August 27 to a new date within the public comment period.

Sincerely,
John C. Magee, MD President
Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network