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Overview

Status: Implemented

Sponsoring Committee: Lung Transplantation

Strategic Goal: Provide equity in access to transplants

Contact:

Sara Rose Wells

Documentation

View the policy notice (PDF; 10/2020)

Incorporating COVID-19 Related Organ Failure In Candidate Listings

Read proposal

This is a special public comment proposal because it was issued on August 31, after public comment opened on August 4, 2020. The special public comment period closed on October 1, 2020.

eye iconAt a glance

What is current policy and why change it?

Currently, there is no way to indicate a patient is in need of a lung transplant due to damage caused by a COVID-19 infection. This means there is no way to identify trends among these patients. Collecting this information now will help the OPTN decide if the Lung Allocation Score (LAS) needs to be updated in the future to better classify these patients.

Incorporating COVID-19 Related Organ Failure in Candidate Listings

Elizabeth Miller, UNOS Policy Analyst, reviews the policy proposal Incorporating COVID-19 Related Organ Failure in Candidate Listings.

Terms you need to know

  • Lung Allocation Score (LAS): In the OPTN lung allocation system, every lung transplant candidate age 12 and older receives a lung allocation score. The LAS is used with blood type and the distance between the candidate and the donor hospital to determine priority for receiving a lung transplant. The score is made up of factors that help determine a candidate’s waitlist urgency and post-transplant survival, including disease diagnosis.

Click here to search the OPTN glossary

What’s the proposal?

  • Add two new options to LAS Group D restrictive lung disease in lung allocation policy:
    • COVID-19: acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)
    • COVID-19: pulmonary fibrosis
  • These diagnoses would be included in the drop down menu in UNetSM

What the anticipated impact of this change?

  • What it's expected to do
    • Help identify trends in these patient populations that could inform future policy changes
  • What it won't do
    • Change the diagnosis group for these candidates

Themes to consider

  • Other diagnoses caused by COVID-19 that could result in lung transplant
  • Organ transplant candidates outside of lung who are being listed due to COVID-19
  • Adding COVID-19 diagnoses codes for other organs

Comments

ERROR | 03/16/2026

Could not retrieve comments for this proposal.