Theme 4 is led by Professor Gavin Pettigrew (Cambridge) and has a dedicated NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) statistician, Dr Jenny Mehew. The theme works in partnership with NHSBT’s Biostatistics Team.
The theme uses large sets of data (information) held by NHSBT to help answer research questions raised across the other BTRU themes. The NHSBT Transplant Registry is one of the most comprehensive transplant databases worldwide. Through the Transplant Registry NHSBT manages the national waiting lists for organ transplantation and decides how deceased donor organs are allocated to those on the waiting list. The Registry is also used to record details of whether offers of organs are accepted or declined by the transplant units. All UK transplant centres are also obliged to return details of the outcomes of the transplants they perform. The statistics team at NHSBT analyse all of this information. They also publish annual reports on the number of transplants performed, and their outcome, for every transplant unit in the UK.
Theme 4 of the BTRU uses data from the NHSBT Transplant Registry. For example, one of the projects will use existing data on lung transplants to predict the likelihood of organ failure following lung transplantation. The aim is to develop a donor lung risk score. This is a calculation that can provide a measure of the quality of a lung at the time of donation. This will enable better use to be made of the donor lungs that are available and ultimately improve transplant outcomes for recipients.
Another project involves establishing a National Organ Perfusion Registry. Organ perfusion can be used to assess, repair and treat donor organs to improve how well they work once transplanted (see Theme 1 for more information on organ perfusion). Developing a registry (database) with NHSBT will mean that all data on organ perfusion in the UK will be collected in one place. This will help researchers to refine perfusion techniques and decide which ones work best.
Patient impact
Work under this theme will help to increase the number of transplants through better understanding of how well donated organs will work once transplanted. It also has the potential to improve long-term outcomes from a better understanding of which perfusion technologies work best.
