The latest updates from SRTR

The 2022 Annual Data Report (ADR) is now live! The ADR provides national statistics and describes trends in donation and transplantation, and is produced by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). This thirty-second annual report is based on data pertaining to the period 2011-2022. It covers the most recent complete year of transplants, those performed in 2022. The ADR is accessible through srtr.transplant.hrsa.gov and is also available via the American Journal of Transplantation.

Posted: 3/1/2024

The variable that indicates if extra vessels were used was removed from consideration in the Lung, Adult 1- and 3-year graft and patient survival models. The National Center-Level Summary Sheets were created from an intermediate output table from the risk adjustment models prior to the update that removed this variable from consideration. All publicly available PDFs and the securely released reports already include the adjusted values for the lung models, and only the summary data sheets were recently adjusted. If you have any questions about this update, please contact us.

Posted: 2/1/2024

SRTR is pleased to share the latest donation and transplant-related application in progress: the Donation and Transplant System Explorer. The transplant system in the United States is in constant flux—policies change, practices evolve, and technologies develop. The purpose of the Donation and Transplant System Explorer is to monitor the national transplant system through these changes to describe where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.

Typically, focus is on only one aspect of our system. With this tool, SRTR hopes to provide a more holistic view of the transplant system in the United States, allowing the user to view it from many different perspectives. After identifying a trend in our transplant system, the real work of understanding the cause of that trend begins. That work is left to the many talented researchers in our field. Ultimately, our goal is that the Donation and Transplant System Explorer will enable our transplant community to better serve our patients and honor the generous gifts of our organ donors and donor families.

If you have any questions or comments about this application, please reach out by contacting us.

Posted: 1/24/2024

Confidence intervals (95%) have been added for all posttransplant estimated probabilities of surviving with a functioning graft (graft survival), and estimated probabilities of surviving (patient survival). This adjustment is included in the PDF tables released publicly on January 9 and is now included in the web-based tables (interactive reports).

Posted: 1/12/2024

Find the latest program-specific and OPO-specific reports on our website. In addition to the traditional PDF format, these reports are also available in our interactive, mobile-friendly format.

Confidence intervals (95%) have been added for all posttransplant estimated probabilities of surviving with a functioning graft (graft survival), and estimated probabilities of surviving (patient survival).

This adjustment is included in the PDF tables released publicly on January 9 and will be included in the web-based tables in the near future.

Stay up to date on PSR and OSR reporting timelines by visiting our website.

Posted: 1/9/2024

In the Analytical Methods Subcommittee (AMS) meetings, SRTR has been discussing the possibility of moving to a more frequent model rebuilding process. The current process rebuilds models every few years but refits models every 6 months. The purpose of rebuilding every cycle would be to ensure that new, potential donor, candidate, and recipient variables are being included in the risk adjustments. For more information about the model rebuilding process, review the March 2023 AMS Minutes. The SRTR AMS voted to implement this change for the January 2024 program-specific reports (PSRs), and this model rebuilding process will be implemented for the posttransplant metrics during the upcoming fall 2023 data review cycle.

This more frequent model rebuilding is currently applied to offer acceptance. It will also be phased into the pretransplant and mortality after listing metrics in the near future as well.

There is no plan to preview the models, because all variables are considered each build and those not chosen in the model are considered to have a 0 coefficient. This is not a new process, but more so a streamlining of SRTR’s current process.

The data review period process will remain the same. The only change will be that programs will be able to see all the raw data fields that come from the TIEDI forms, not just those that may be used in the models. This may create a possibility of extra variables being included in the data integrity reports.

During the first application of the new models to the data, programs may see a shift in how some data present, especially in the cumulative sum (CUSUM) charts. However, this happens whenever a model change occurs. With each cycle, data presentation will shift less as the models retain their consistency.

In monitoring efforts, programs can predict and/or benchmark potentially changing variables by allowing for inclusion of all variables each run. Programs would simply implement 0 coefficients for variables not used each run.

Questions about this update? Contact us.

Posted: 9/11/2023

Find the latest program-specific and OPO-specific reports on our website. In addition to the traditional PDF format, these reports are also available in our interactive, mobile-friendly format. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Stay up to date on PSR and OSR reporting timelines by visiting our website.

Posted: 7/6/2023

The draft release of the OSRs is now live. Read the reason for delay below.

Posted: 4/4/2023

Release Originally Scheduled for April 1, 2023

The draft release of SRTR’s OPO-specific reports (OSRs), originally scheduled for April 1, 2023, has been delayed. In order to reduce the potential confusion with the upcoming release of performance metric information by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the upcoming OSRs are being revised and will not include information regarding CMS performance measures as previously planned. 

SRTR will release the draft OSRs on the SRTR Secure Site as soon as programming changes are implemented. SRTR will announce a new release date as soon as possible. Any data corrections must still be made to OPTN data by April 30, 2023 as originally scheduled. This delay does not affect the release of the draft transplant program-specific reports (PSRs) scheduled for April 1, 2023. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this scheduling adjustment. For more information, please contact us.

Posted: 3/31/2023

The 2021 Annual Data Report (ADR) is now live! The ADR provides national statistics and describes trends in donation and transplantation, and is produced by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). This thirty-first annual report is based on data pertaining to the period 2010-2021. It covers the most recent complete year of transplants, those performed in 2021. The ADR is accessible through srtr.transplant.hrsa.gov and is also available via the American Journal of Transplantation.

Posted: 3/2/2023

Pursuant to SRTR’s contract with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), SRTR will be modifying future releases of the OPO-specific Reports (OSRs) to include reporting of the new OPO performance metrics implemented by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on August 1, 2022 (42 CFR Part 486). Beginning with the July 2023 release of the OSRs, SRTR is planning to include reporting of the Donation Rate and Transplant Rate as defined by CMS*. These metrics will be accompanied by detailed data tables along with presentations of the metrics. Future changes are being explored, including the potential to report the metrics within subgroups and with additional risk adjustment to provide deeper insights into the OPOs performance on these metrics.

In addition to adding the new CMS metrics, SRTR will no longer be reporting the Eligible Death Donation Rate beginning with the July 2023 release of the OSRs.

Both of the above changes were reviewed and approved by the SRTR Review Committee (SRC) at its meeting on February 3, 2023. All changes are pending programming. For more information, please contact us.

*While SRTR aims to reproduce the CMS metrics as defined, results may slightly differ from those presented in official CMS reports. This is due to differences in when underlying data were sourced or differences in how OPO mergers are handled within the reports. In the event of differences, CMS-released reports will remain the official evaluation for the purposes of OPO evaluation and recertification determinations.

Posted: 2/21/2023

Find the latest program-specific and OPO-specific reports on our website. In addition to the traditional PDF format, these reports are also available in our interactive, mobile-friendly format.

Stay up to date on PSR and OSR reporting timelines by visiting our website.

As of 1/1/2023, The Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland and Washington Regional Transplant Community have merged. OPO-specific reports (OSRs) will reflect this change beginning with the Spring 2023 OSRs (July, 2023).

Posted: 1/5/2023

Find the latest program-specific and OPO-specific reports on our website. In addition to the traditional PDF format, these reports are also available in our interactive, mobile-friendly format. The Donation and Transplantation Analytics (DATA) tool has also been updated with the most recent data cohort. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Stay up to date on PSR and OSR reporting timelines by visiting our website.

Posted: 7/6/2022

The 2020 Annual Data Report (ADR) is now live. The ADR provides national statistics and describes trends in donation and transplantation, and is produced by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). This thirtieth annual report is based on data pertaining to the period 2009-2020. It covers the most recent complete year of transplants, those performed in 2020. The ADR is accessible through srtr.transplant.hrsa.gov, and is also available at the American Journal of Transplantation.

Posted: 3/14/2022

The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) has launched a new tool called Donation and Transplantation Analytics (DATA). This new transplant data query system enables users to view and analyze the most current transplant data available. The platform also facilitates the creation of custom, easily downloadable and shareable report graphics and tables for transplant candidates, recipients, and donors. The DATA tool is currently in beta; please contact SRTR with any questions or comments about the current version.

Posted: 1/12/2022

Find the latest program-specific and OPO-specific reports on our website. In addition to the traditional PDF format, these reports are also available in our interactive, mobile-friendly format.

Stay up to date on PSR and OSR reporting timelines by visiting our website.

COVID-19 Changes Associated with the January 2022 Program-specific and OPO-specific Reports

The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), under contract from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is charged with evaluating the performance of the nation’s transplant system through publication of semiannual transplant program-specific reports (PSRs) and organ procurement organization (OPO)–specific reports (OSRs). These reports contain performance metrics covering various periods. For OPOs, these metrics include eligible death conversion rates and deceased donor organ yield. For transplant programs, they include waitlist mortality rates; transplant rates; organ offer acceptance rates; patient mortality after listing; and 1-month, 1-year, and 3-year posttransplant outcomes including graft survival and patient survival.

The SRTR Review Committee (SRC) has reviewed the impact of the pandemic on SRTR’s public reporting activities and has made recommendations on report modifications. The January 2021 reports were modified to exclude postpandemic data from all performance metrics as previously announced. The July 2021 reports made additional modifications to the reports on a measure-by measure basis as previously announced. On January 6, 2022, the semiannual reports were updated on the SRTR website with additional modifications to remove data from March 13, 2020, through June 12, 2020 (the “carve-out period”) as previously announced. These reports are the first to include patients who underwent transplants after the carve-out period. SRTR has worked with the SRC and its 3 subcommittees (the Analytical Methods Subcommittee, the Human-Centered Design Subcommittee, and the Patient and Family Affairs Subcommittee) to review and implement these changes.

Both SRTR and the SRC acknowledge the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the transplant system and the entire healthcare system. SRTR continues to actively monitor and discuss the effects of the pandemic with the SRC and has provided a COVID-19–evaluation application on the SRTR website. In consultation with HRSA and the SRC, SRTR continues to publish the PSRs and OSRs with the understanding that the pandemic may be affecting various performance metrics. Excess deaths due to COVID-19 have been noted during this reporting period and SRTR and the SRC acknowledge that the pandemic has affected different regions of the country at different times. Adjusting the outcomes metrics or assessing risk according to factors related to SARS-CoV-2 status in donors and recipients are possibilities that SRTR continues to discuss, but significant challenges remain. 

SRTR will continue to work with the SRC and its subcommittees to evaluate optimal ways to provide information to the interested public as the nation’s transplant system strives to optimize patient outcomes through the gift of organ donation and transplantation.

Questions? Contact us.

Posted: 01/6/2022

The SRTR Liver Waiting List Calculator has received a massive refresh! Displaying a streamlined user interface and side-by-side comparisons of liver waitlist outcomes at the center and regional level, the most-used SRTR application has become much easier to navigate. The application also now has multiple print and digital export options.

The Liver Waiting List Calculator was created to help patients in need of a liver transplant, their families, and their doctors understand the experiences of patients on a liver transplant program's waiting list over the past two years. The tool takes a snapshot of each program's waiting list and then determines what happened to each candidate on that list over the following year, including at 30, 60, 90, 180, and 365 days. For more information about the application, visit the app’s documentation page.

If you have any questions about this update, please contact us.

Posted: 9/16/2021

The lung risk-adjustment models for patient mortality after listing were updated on July 16, 2021, following initial release on July 6, 2021. Previously, the models included candidate pCO2 captured on the transplant candidate registration (TCR) form. This variable was removed in 2015 from the TCR form, but was kept in the risk-adjustment models resulting in a significant amount of missing values. As a result, the expected number of events for most lung patients was unrealistically low due to the least beneficial value adjustment for missing data.

Now, the lung risk-adjustment models no longer include the pCO2 variable captured on the TCR form, resulting in a better evaluation of patient mortality after listing for lung transplant candidates. This correction affects Figures B7 and B8.

Areas across our web environments where you will see this lung-only change reflected are:

• Lung program-specific report PDFs.
• Our new interactive reports for Lung, under Deceased Donor Transplant Rates, under the ‘Overall Survival From Listing’ tab.
• National Center-level Summary Data for Lung (found at the bottom of the PSRs landing page.)
• Lung Mortality After Listing Risk-adjustment Models.
• Lung Mortality After Listing Expected Survival Worksheets on the SRTR Secure Site.

If you have any questions about this update, please contact us.

Posted: 7/16/2021

Find the latest program-specific and OPO-specific reports on our website. In addition to the traditional PDF format, these reports are also available in our new, interactive, mobile-friendly format. These reports also reflect COVID-19-related changes; learn more about these changes by reading the announcement we shared earlier this year. We also have an FAQs page dedicated to addressing community concerns. If you still have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Stay up to date on PSR and OSR reporting timelines by visiting our website.

Posted: 7/6/2021

The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), under contract from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is charged with evaluating the performance of the nation’s solid organ transplant system through publication of semi-annual transplant program-specific reports (PSRs) and organ procurement organization (OPO)-specific reports (OSRs). These reports contain performance metrics covering various time periods. For OPOs, these metrics include eligible death conversion rates and deceased donor organ yield. For transplant programs, they include waitlist mortality rates, transplant rates, organ offer acceptance rates, patient mortality after listing, and 1-month, 1-year, and 3-year posttransplant outcomes, including graft and patient survival.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, SRTR modified the evaluation metrics for transplant programs and OPOs for the January 2021 and July 2021 reporting cycles, as previously announced. Potential modifications for the January 2022 reporting cycle were considered at the Analytic Methods Subcommittee of the SRTR Review Committee (SRC) at its meeting on March 24, 2021, and the full SRC meeting on April 27, 2021.

Both the Analytic Methods Subcommittee and the full SRC recommended an ongoing carve out of the first quarter of the pandemic (March 13, 2020 through June 12, 2020) from adjusted performance metrics, as detailed below. These recommendations were reviewed by HRSA’s Division of Transplantation, which oversees SRTR. HRSA approved these recommendations, which SRTR will implement for the January 2022 reporting cycle. These changes will remain in force beyond the January 2022 reporting cycle, unless otherwise amended:

• Posttransplant Outcomes (including 1-month, 1-year, and 3-year graft and patient survival): Evaluation cohorts will exclude transplants performed between March 13, 2020 and June 12, 2020, inclusive of March 13 and June 12. Patients given transplants before March 13, 2020 will have follow-up censored on March 12, 2020. Patients given transplants after June 12, 2020 will resume normal follow-up. Follow-up will not resume for patients given transplants before March 13, 2020 who are alive with function on June 12, 2020; however, this may be reconsidered as SRTR continues to explore moving to a period-prevalent methodology.
• 1-month and 1-year Patient and Graft Survival Evaluations: For transplants 7/1/2018-3/12/2020, follow-up will continue through 3/12/2020. For transplants 6/13/2020-12/31/2020, follow-up will continue through 6/30/2021.
• 3-year Patient and Graft Survival Evaluations: For transplants 1/1/2016-6/30/2018, follow-up will continue through 3/12/2020.
• Waitlist Mortality Rate: Evaluation cohorts will exclude March 13, 2020 through June 12, 2020, inclusive of March 13 and June 12.
• Days after listing (and before transplant) between 7/1/2019-3/12/2020 and 6/13/2020-6/30/2021.
• Transplant Rate: Evaluation cohorts will exclude March 13, 2020 through June 12, 2020, inclusive of March 13 and June 12.
• Candidates on the waitlist 7/1/2019-3/12/2020 and 6/13/2020-6/30/2021.
• Overall Mortality Rate after Listing: Evaluation cohorts will exclude March 13, 2020 through June 12, 2020, inclusive of March 13 and June 12.
• Evaluation period: 7/1/2019-3/12/2020 and 6/13/2020-6/30/2021.
• Offer Acceptance Rate: These evaluations are based on normal reporting cohorts.
• Offers received 7/1/2020-6/30/2021.
• Eligible Death Conversion Rate: These evaluations are based on normal reporting cohorts.
• Eligible deaths 7/1/2020-6/30/2021.
• Deceased Donor Organ Yield: Deceased donors during the first quarter of the national emergency will be excluded from evaluation.
• Deceased donors 7/1/2019-3/12/2020 and 6/13/2020-6/30/2021.

These decisions will apply to the evaluations released in the SRTR’s semi-annual PSRs and OSRs scheduled for release in January 2022.

As with the January 2021 and July 2021 reports, SRTR will continue to report descriptive data beyond March 12, 2020 (eg waitlist counts, transplant counts, recipient characteristics, donor counts, donor characteristics) but will alter data for performance evaluation metrics, as described above.

For more information about these decisions, please refer to our FAQs. For questions and comments, please contact us.

Posted: 5/27/2021

The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), under contract from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is charged with evaluating the performance of the nation’s transplant system through publication of semi-annual transplant program-specific reports (PSRs) and organ procurement organization (OPO)-specific reports (OSRs). These reports contain performance metrics covering various time periods. For OPOs, these metrics include eligible death conversion rates and deceased donor organ yield. For transplant programs, they include waitlist mortality rates, transplant rates, organ offer acceptance rates, patient mortality after listing, and 1-month, 1-year, and 3-year posttransplant outcomes including graft survival and patient survival.

In response to the current global pandemic, SRTR modified the evaluation metrics for transplant programs and OPOs for the reports released in January 2021. The reports released in January 2021 made adjustments to transplant program and OPO performance metrics so that data beyond the declaration of a national public health emergency on March 13, 2020, were not included in the metrics.

The SRTR Review Committee (SRC) reviewed the metrics at its meetings on January 20, 2021, and February 9, 2021, with the goal of determining whether continued adjustments are necessary, or if the SRTR should resume regular reporting of transplant program and OPO performance metrics. The committee reviewed data on how the pandemic has affected the nation’s transplant system, and the extent to which the effects varied geographically and temporally. The committee made the following recommendations to SRTR. These recommendations were reviewed by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Division of Transplantation, which oversees the SRTR. HRSA approved of these recommendations which the SRTR will implement for the July 2021 reporting cycle:

• Posttransplant Outcomes (including 1-month, 1-year, and 3-year graft and patient survival): Evaluations cohorts will continue to exclude transplants and follow-up time beyond March 12, 2020.
  • 1-month & 1-year Patient and Graft Survival Evaluations: Transplants 1/1/2018-3/12/2020; follow-up through 3/12/2020.
  • 3-year Patient and Graft Survival Evaluations: Transplants 7/1/2015-12/31/2017; follow-up through 3/12/2020.
• Waitlist Mortality Rate: Evaluations cohorts will be modified on an organ-specific basis:
  • Kidney and Lung: Candidates on the waitlist 1/1/2019-3/12/2020.
  • Liver, Heart, Pancreas, and Intestine: Candidates on the waitlist 1/1/2019-12/31/2020.
• Transplant Rate: The first quarter following declaration of a national emergency will be excluded from the transplant rate evaluations for all organ types.
  • Candidates on the waitlist 1/1/2019-3/12/2020 and 6/13/2020-12/31/2020.
• Overall Rate of Mortality After Listing: Patient follow-up will continue to be truncated on 3/12/2020:
  • Evaluation period: 1/1/2019-3/12/2020.
• Offer Acceptance Rate: These evaluations will return to normal reporting cohorts.
  • Offers received 1/1/2020-12/31/2020.
• Eligible Death Conversion Rate: Eligible deaths during the first quarter of the national emergency will be excluded from evaluation.
  • Eligible deaths 1/1/2020-3/12/2020 and 6/13/2020-12/31/2020.
• Deceased Donor Organ Yield: Deceased donors during the first quarter of the national emergency will be excluded from evaluation.
  • Deceased donors 1/1/2019-3/12/2020 and 6/13/2020-12/31/2020.
    

These decisions will apply to the evaluations released in the SRTR’s semi-annual program-specific reports scheduled for release on July 6, 2021. These changes have been communicated to the leadership of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network’s Membership and Professional Standards Committee (MSPC). These decisions will then be re-evaluated as more information becomes available in preparation for the release scheduled for January 2022.

As with the January 2021 reports, SRTR will continue to report descriptive data beyond March 12, 2020, eg, waitlist counts, transplant counts, recipient characteristics, donor counts, donor characteristics, etc., but will alter data for performance evaluation metrics as described above.

For more information regarding these decisions, please refer to our FAQs. We wish all of you, our donation and transplant colleagues, the best in your continued efforts to heal and save lives through the gift of transplant during this challenging time. For questions and comments, please contact us.

Posted: 3/12/2021

The SRTR Review Committee (SRC), formerly known as the SRTR Visiting Committee (SVC), provides objective expert review of SRTR contract activity, including methodological and analytical activity, websites, tools, and simulation modeling. In addition, the SRC exists to advise the Board of Directors of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and OPTN committees.

Since the beginning of the new SRTR contract awarded by HRSA in September of 2020, the new SRC has undergone significant enhancements to provide even better expert guidance to the SRTR. In addition to the main SRC, three standing subcommittees have been formed: the Analytic Methods Subcommittee (provides objective review and advice to SRTR contract activity as it relates to analytical methods, simulation modeling, and operations research), the Patient and Family Affairs Subcommittee (provides objective review and advice to SRTR contract activity as it relates to providing information to patients and families), and the Human-Centered Design Subcommittee (provides objective review and advice to SRTR contract activity as it relates to providing information to various stakeholders, including patients and families, transplant professionals, and the general public.)

Joining the main SRC in 2021 are:

Co-chair: Roslyn Mannon, MD, Transplant Nephrologist, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE

Members:

• Kiran Khush, MD, MAS, Transplant Cardiologist, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA
• Christopher Zinner, Managing Director, Accenture Federal Services

Ex-Officio Member (Chair of the OPTN Data Advisory Committee): Rachel Patzer, PhD, MPH, Director, Transplant Health Services and Outcomes Research Program, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA

Joining the SRC subcommittees in 2021 are:

Analytic Methods Subcommittee:

Co-chairs: Brent Logan, PhD and Andrew Wey, PhD

Members:

• Katherine Panageas, DrPH, Associate Attending Biostatistician, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Andrew Schaefer, PhD, Noah Harding Chair and Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Rice University
• David Vock, PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota
• Shu-Xia Li, PhD, Associate Director of Data Management and Analytics at Yale-New Haven Hospital

Patient and Family Affairs Subcommittee:

Co-chairs: Allyson Hart, MD, MS and Richard Knight, MBA

Members:

• Katie McKee, Living Donor 
• David Rodriguez, Kidney Recipient
• Dale Rogers, Kidney Recipient
• Rolanda Schmidt, PhD, Truth with Grace Consulting, Deceased Donor Family Member
• Amy Silverstein, Heart Recipient
• Carla Smith, Lung Recipient
• Ameen Tabatabai, Liver Recipient

Human-Centered Design Subcommittee:

Co-chairs: Cory Schaffhausen, PhD and Christopher Zinner, Managing Director, Accenture Federal Services

Members:

• Ryan Armbruster, MHA, Sr. Fellow, Division of Health Policy and Management
• Sue Chu, PhD, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Design, University of Minnesota
• Kate Clayton, Design Lead, Health, Fjord Design at Accenture Federal Services
• Harry Hochheiser, PhD, Associate Professor Clinical and Translational Science

Posted: 2/11/2021

Find the latest program-specific and OPO-specific reports on our website. In addition to the traditional PDF format, these reports are also available in our new, interactive, mobile-friendly format. These reports also reflect COVID-19-related changes; learn more about these changes by reading the announcement we shared last year.

Stay up to date on PSR and OSR reporting timelines by visiting our website.

Posted: 1/5/2021

Minneapolis, MN (September 21, 2020) – Following a federal open competition acquisition process, the Chronic Disease Research Group (CDRG) of the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute (HHRI) was awarded the federal contract to operate the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). Among its key functions, the SRTR evaluates the status of the nation’s solid organ transplant system and provides analytic support to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) for purposes including the formulation and evaluation of organ allocation policies in the United States. 

HHRI will continue to manage the SRTR under contract with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The new contract award marks the third contract term for the operation of the SRTR for HHRI, which has operated the SRTR since 2010. The new contract contains a series of optional terms that may extend the period of performance through September 2025.

HHRI is the research arm and a nonprofit subsidiary of Hennepin Healthcare System, Inc., an integrated healthcare system that includes the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), a nationally recognized Level 1 Trauma Center and acute care and teaching hospital in Minneapolis, MN. HHRI is one of the largest nonprofit medical research institutions in Minnesota, ranking nationally in the top 10% of institutions receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

CDRG currently serves as the Coordinating Center for the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) and in the past has managed the Kidney Early Evaluation Program of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), the North Central Donor Exchange Cooperative (a collaboration between kidney transplant centers in the Upper Midwest), the Peer Kidney Care Initiative, and the CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease) Health Evaluation Risk Information Sharing project conducted by NKF in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDRG has also received international recognition for its analyses of chronic disease states, including chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

Jon J. Snyder, PhD, MS, will continue to serve as SRTR Director, Ajay K. Israni, MD, MS, as Deputy Director/Medical Director, Bertram L. Kasiske, MD, FACP, as Medical Director for Living Donation, and Ryutaro (Ryo) Hirose, MD, as Surgical Director. National Senior Staff members with organ-specific expertise and expertise in epidemiology, histocompatibility, biostatistics, economics, and computer modeling of allocation systems help complete the team. More information about SRTR can be found at www.srtr.org.

Posted: 9/21/2020

SRTR is excited to announce the launch of our new, interactive, mobile-friendly program-specific reports (PSRs) and organ procurement organization-specific reports (OSRs). The PSRs and OSRs contain a vast amount of information that has historically been presented in PDF format, often containing more than 50 pages of information. This new presentation (available through a regular transplant program search on our website, titled New Interactive Report), marks a new milestone in the evolution of these reports by converting the information in the PDFs into modern, mobile-friendly, interactive data visualizations. These visualizations allow users to quickly navigate the information, download the data and figures, and share this information with colleagues and patients as needed. We hope this momentous update to the reports is helpful and furthers the work we do in the nation’s donation and transplantation community. If you have any questions about this update, please contact us.

Posted: 9/16/2020

The first version of the COVID-19 evaluation application is now live on the SRTR public website. The application presents the differences in waitlist outcomes, offer acceptance, posttransplant graft survival, and donor utilization before and after the emergence of COVID-19. The evaluation includes a wide range of descriptive statistics and adjusted analyses, including the effect of COVID-19 on patient subgroups (eg, candidate age). This app will have periodic updates, so stay tuned to our website and social media platforms for the announcements. If you have any questions about the current version of the app, please contact us.

Posted 9/9/2020

An application that evaluates acuity circles’ impact on liver transplantation is now live on the SRTR public website. The application investigates changes in waitlist outcomes, donor utilization, and transplant characteristics before and after the implementation of acuity circles. SRTR plans to update the application monthly as more information becomes available.

Posted: 8/11/2020

The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), under contract from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is charged with evaluating the performance of the nation’s transplant system through publication of semi-annual transplant program-specific reports (PSRs) and organ procurement organization (OPO)-specific reports (OSRs). These reports contain performance metrics covering various time periods. For OPOs, these metrics include eligible death conversion rates and deceased donor organ yield. For transplant programs, they include waitlist mortality rates, transplant rates, organ offer acceptance rates, patient mortality after listing, and 1-month, 1-year, and 3-year posttransplant outcomes including graft survival and patient survival.

In light of the current global pandemic, SRTR will be modifying the evaluation metrics for transplant programs and OPOs. Following the declaration of a national public health emergency on March 13, 2020, COVID-19 has had a large impact on the transplant system. The reports scheduled for release in January 2021, with data presented through June 30, 2020, will be the first to cover the performance period after March 13, 2020. The SRTR Visiting Committee reviewed preliminary data on the impact of the pandemic at its meeting on July 7, 2020, with the goal of considering changes to upcoming reports. Preliminary data suggest that the pandemic has had a differential effect on different areas of the country at different times, making it a challenge to deal with statistically until more data becomes available. SRTR’s recommendation to the Visiting Committee was to remove any patient and donor data from the performance metrics following the declaration of a national emergency on March 13, 2020. For transplant programs, this means that SRTR will stop all patient follow-up on March 12, 2020, the day prior to the declaration, ie, waitlist survival, transplant rate, and outcomes will not be assessed after that date. For OPOs, SRTR will not evaluate eligible death conversion rates or deceased donor organ yield past March 12, 2020.

SRTR will continue to report descriptive data beyond March 12, 2020, eg, waitlist counts, transplant counts, recipient characteristics, donor counts, donor characteristics, etc., but will exclude data from performance evaluation metrics, eg, waitlist mortality rate ratios, transplant rate ratios, overall survival from listing rate ratios, offer acceptance rate ratios, and posttransplant patient and graft survival rate ratios. We emphasize that the Visiting Committee and HRSA will continue to evaluate this solution to determine future changes as the pandemic continues to evolve and SRTR can investigate alternative solutions.

We wish all of you, our donation and transplant colleagues, the best in your continued efforts to heal and save lives through the gift of transplant during this challenging time. For questions and comments, please contact us.

Posted: 8/6/2020

Find the latest program-specific and OPO-specific reports on our website. 

Patient Mortality after Listing is now part of the public PSR and was incorporated as Table B6. Therefore the former Table B6 and all B tables below that have also shifted down one numeral. For instance, the former Table B9 Time to Transplant for Waiting List Candidates, is now Table B10. The methodology has also been updated to reflect this change.

Stay up to date on PSR and OSR reporting timelines.

Posted: 8/4/2020

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, SRTR is extending the Data Review Period deadline from April 30 to May 31. This allows transplant programs and OPOs more time to review their data for accuracy during this difficult time. Given the rapidly evolving situation, the deadline may be extended again in the future, and SRTR will work closely with HRSA and OPTN leadership to make that determination. Data Integrity Reports and program-specific report drafts for transplant programs and Donor Level Data sheets and OPO-specific report drafts for OPOs are available to review from April 1-May 31, until 11:59 PM EDT. Verify data and make changes in UNet or DonorNet. The SRTR Visiting Committee will be reviewing the situation and making a recommendation to HRSA regarding suggested modifications to the performance metrics contained in the program-specific and OPO-specific reports. SRTR will also keep the community informed of the eventual public release dates for this round of the reports.

If you have questions and/or comments, please contact us.

Posted: 4/1/2020

This webinar discusses helpful tools available to transplant programs on the SRTR public and secure websites. Tools include the Liver Waitlist Calculator, the Kidney Transplant Decision Tool, the Pretransplant Survival Worksheets, and the Posttransplant expected Survival Worksheets.

Date: Wednesday, May 6, from 1-2 p.m. CDT

Register

Posted: 3/2/2020

Find the latest program-specific and OPO-specific reports on our website. In this release, age and body mass index (BMI) categories have expanded. Table categories include ages 65-69 and 70+, and BMI has expanded to include 31-35, 36-40, and 41+.

An adjustment for biopsy results has also been added in posttransplant models for kidney and liver, and in kidney and liver OPO yield models.

Additionally, posttransplant intestine and survival from listing models are being previewed with this release.

Stay up to date on PSR and OSR reporting timelines by visiting our website.

Posted: 1/7/2020

The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Ryutaro (Ryo) Hirose as Surgical Director of the SRTR. Dr. Hirose serves as Professor of Clinical Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and will continue in that role while lending his vast expertise to SRTR. In this new role, Dr. Hirose will provide general surgical expertise to all aspects of SRTR, support the OPTN Board of Directors and committees, and will serve as primary surgical liaison to professional societies, including the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS). Dr. Hirose received his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his residency, postdoctoral fellowship, chief residency, and fellowship all at UCSF. Dr. Hirose has served on various committees within the ASTS, and has served as vice-chair and chair of the Liver and Intestinal Transplantation Committee of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). Dr. Hirose will join the leadership team comprised of Dr. Ajay Israni, SRTR Medical Director and Deputy Director, Dr. Bertram Kasiske, SRTR Medical Director for Living Donation, and Dr. Jon Snyder, SRTR Director. SRTR looks forward to continued service to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) with Dr. Hirose’s leadership.

For questions and comments, contact us.

Posted: 11/19/19

Effective September 21, 2019, Bertram Kasiske, MD, FACP, will be stepping down as the Director of the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), and Jon Snyder, PhD, will assume the Director role. Dr. Kasiske has been the Director since September of 2010 and has lead SRTR through 9 successful years, overseeing improvements in program-specific and OPO-specific reporting, creation of new public and secure SRTR websites, the launch of the Living Donor Collective pilot project, publication of the SRTR/OPTN Annual Data Reports, support of all OPTN policymaking committees, and numerous scientific publications furthering the field of solid organ transplantation.

Dr. Kasiske will continue supporting SRTR with a primary focus on living donation, continuing to lead the Living Donor Collective pilot project, and Ajay Israni, MD, MS, will continue to serve as the Deputy Director of SRTR.

Dr. Snyder has been the Director of Transplant Epidemiology for SRTR since September 2010, and he began his career in the field of transplant epidemiology in 1999. He oversees the Chronic Disease Research Group’s (CDRG) research in the areas of organ, eye, and tissue donation and transplantation. CDRG currently operates SRTR under contract with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Snyder’s research focuses on data analytics targeted at healing and saving lives through transplantation. In addition to his work with SRTR, Dr. Snyder serves as a Statistical Editor for the American Journal of Transplantation and as an Associate Editor for the journal Transplantation. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Donate Life America and the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance. Dr. Snyder holds a Master of Science in Biostatistics and a Doctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology from the University of Minnesota, where he also holds an adjunct faculty appointment in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health.

Continuing to provide excellent service to HRSA and the transplant community will remain Dr. Snyder’s primary focus as the Director of SRTR. Questions and/or comments can be directed to srtr@srtr.org.

Posted: 8/15/19

Find the latest program-specific and OPO-specific reports on our website. Stay up to date on PSR and OSR reporting timelines.

Posted: 7/8/2019

The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) has updated the transplant rate and waitlist mortality models used in the program-specific reports (PSRs) for pancreas and intestine programs. Additionally, a new offer acceptance model was developed for pancreas and kidney-pancreas transplantation. The models will be integrated into the July 2019 PSRs.  Offer acceptance CUSUM charts for pancreas and kidney-pancreas programs will be available on the SRTR secure site after the release of the PSRs.

Similar to last year’s update of the kidney, liver, lung, and heart models, the updated transplant rate and waitlist mortality models changed in three significant ways

• A much wider range of candidate characteristics at listing are considered, including information from the status history and/or justification files.
• Updated models use a single 2-year cohort rather than two separate 1-year cohorts.
• Models are now estimated with the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). The LASSO can select important covariates while improving the predictive performance of the models.

A preview of the updated transplant rate and waitlist mortality models is available on our website, and a separate preview of the new offer acceptance models for pancreas and kidney-pancreas transplant is also available.  The transplant rate and waitlist mortality models were built using a similar process to the posttransplant models. For more information, read the SRTR publication Developing Statistical Models to Assess Transplant Outcomes Using National Registries: The Process in the United States.

Share your feedback on the transplant rate and waitlist mortality models by contacting us.

Posted: 3/4/2019

The 5-tier outcome assessment system is live on the SRTR public site. Please read our previous announcement about the planned move.  Contact us with any questions or comments at srtr@srtr.org. 

Posted: 2/5/2019

5-Tier System Moving from Beta Site to Public Site

In December 2016, SRTR launched a new website that displayed a new 5-tier outcome assessment for all transplant programs in the United States. This new system, which replaced a 3-tier system, was developed over a period of 5 years and approved by SRTR’s Visiting Committee (SVC). However, in response to community feedback, the 5-tier system was moved to this beta website in February 2017, and was replaced by the previous 3-tier system on the main SRTR website. The intent of the beta site was to allow for more feedback and to consider additional improvements.

After applying multiple improvements based on feedback received, SRTR also recently called for public comment on the beta site changes and collected additional feedback for a period of 60 days (May 14, 2018 to July 13, 2018). Changes were made in response to the feedback received, and SRTR is pleased to announce that after receiving both HRSA and SVC approval, the 5-tier outcome assessment system will be moving from the beta site to the public site on February 5, 2019.

In response to the feedback and SVC’s recommendations, changes made include:

1. Five-tier assessments for waitlist mortality and deceased donor transplant rate have been added, in response to feedback that the new system placed too much emphasis on first-year transplant outcomes. Additional feedback received advocated not to provide a waitlist mortality tier for kidney candidates because kidney programs do not care for candidates as directly as other organ types, so SRTR removed the waitlist mortality tier for kidney programs.
2. The transplant rate is now based on deceased donor transplants only, rather than on both deceased and living donor transplants, in response to feedback that the combined transplant rate was potentially misleading to patients without a living donor.
3. Living donor transplant counts for liver and kidney programs are now displayed alongside the deceased donor transplant counts, in response to feedback that the site should prominently display programs that perform more living donor transplants.
4. Various improvements to educational materials provided alongside the search results have been made, including 1) improved explanatory text for each outcome as determined through patient focus groups; 2) a key that shows expected outcomes for programs in each tier for waitlist mortality, transplant rate, and first-year graft survival; 3) an indicator showing which outcome has the greatest overall impact on survival after listing for each organ; 4) removal of interpretive text previously provided with each tier, eg, “worse than expected,” “better than expected.”

You can currently view detailed information about these updates/changes on this beta site, and the 5-tier system will soon become available on the public website. These changes were made following feedback received from the community and vetted through patient focus groups and randomized trials of various website iterations during 2017 and 2018. SRTR continues to welcome feedback and is always looking for ways to improve the program assessments in place. Contact us with any questions or comments at srtr@srtr.org. 

Posted: 1/16/2019

The 2017 Annual Data Report (ADR) release will be delayed at this time. The delay is due to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) experiencing an unanticipated loss of its source for supplemental information identifying whether a patient is currently living or deceased. This death data loss occurred last Spring.

The anticipated publication date is not available at this time, but we will alert the public as soon as a date is available. Stay tuned to our website and social media platforms for more information on this matter as it develops. If you have any questions, please contact us at srtr@srtr.org.

Posted: 1/10/2019

Find the latest program-specific and OPO-specific reports on our website. Stay up to date on PSR and OSR reporting timelines

Posted: 1/7/2019