Cooperating saves lives: Experience from Eurotransplant

Author: Ton Hartevelt, Eurotransplant

Eurotransplant’s participation in the BRAVEST project fits our philosophy ‘cooperating saves lives’. We are convinced that learning from the different partners in this project is the best way to enhance future resilience to pan-European high-pressure situations.  

Eurotransplant has learned some serious lessons during the SARS-Cov2 pandemic. The pandemic heavily affected the Eurotransplant society, including transplantation medicine. To support the Eurotransplant community during the pandemic regular (video) meetings with the national competent authorities and procurement organisations were organised. The purpose of these meetings was to inform on how to deal with the situation in the field of donation procurement, transport and more general (restrictive) local/national regulations.  

In early 2022, in cooperation with the competent authorities, organ procurement organisations and our Organ Process Chain Committee (OPCC), a policy was drafted “Guidance for handling organ donors Sars-Cov2 positive test (PCR)”. This guideline contains the prerequisites and conditions under which these organ donors can be reported and what information is strongly recommended for the transplant centres to make a good risk assessment of the organ offer. This policy was revised in spring 2023. 

Eurotransplant has a long history in data collection and registry, analysing and presenting statistical overviews of donation, allocation, transplantation and waiting list management activities of Eurotransplant and the member states. We truly believe that by sharing our data, expertise and experience we can contribute to the success of the BRAVEST project.