The recent signing of The Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act heralds the beginning of a new era for organ transplantation. For the first time since the national system’s creation in 1984, multiple organizations will participate in the system’s operations, ending the process that previously awarded full oversight and management of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) to a single organization. This uncharted territory has prompted questions from patients and donors: How will the modernized system impact candidates’ wait time for an organ transplant? How will multiple government contractors work together to ensure that donated organs are matched efficiently to patients in need? And many more.
"Everybody knows the system has been broken for years with heartbreaking consequences. Now with the president’s signature, we are taking significant steps to improve it," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre after President Biden signed the bill into law last month.
