Optimizing Beneficence and Justice in Heart Transplant Allocation

Over the last 5 decades, heart transplant has emerged as the preferred therapy for select patients with advanced heart failure, with a 1-year survival of 90% and conditional half-life of 13 years, far better than that of end-stage heart disease. Yet demand for donor hearts far exceeds supply, and more than one-third of candidates die or are removed from the waiting list without receiving a transplant. Thus, equitable allocation of this scarce resource to those of the highest medical urgency remains a major challenge.
Source: JAMA - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research