Posted : 2023-07-26 20:14:38

Unmet need for human organ: An upcoming challenge to the Healthcare system in the United States

Cesta has a great data visualization and Statisticians team. We have utilized publically available data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) website to showcase our expertise in different Analytical tools, namely SAS, R & Tableau. We explored data during the period 2002 to 2022 to analyze organ donation and waitlisted for organs to understand trends and the overall situation through this blog.

Here are some key points about the organ donation trend in the United States:

There were three times more waitlisted than organ donors in the last year in 2022. The trend of organ donation in the United States has been generally positive. There is an increasing number of organ donors and transplants performed over the years despite that there is a huge waitlist addition every year for organ transplants.

Waiting List for Organs: Despite the positive trend in organ donation, the demand for organs still outstrips the supply. As a result, there continues to be a significant gap between donations and waiting lists for organ transplants every year. In the last year in 2022, this gap was nearly 40%.

From Tablue

Impact of COVID-19: The COVID-19 pandemic has had some impact on organ transplantation and donations resulted in a decrease in both waitlisted and donations compared to the previous years. It is observed more decrease in live donors in this duration .

There is a slight difference between deceased and live donors in the last tenyears trend. Deceased donors are increasing slightly more than live donors, it may be because of the organ donation pledge in case of accidental deaths.

Ethnicity-wise, the white population donated more than 68%, it is according to the proportion of the white population followed by Hispanic/Latino at 14% and the Black population at 13% and others.

From R:

There is not much difference in male and female donors pattern, during 2019 to 2020 female donors dropped due to covid and now increasing at a low pace.

From R:

Data shows a similar proportion in age group-wise organ donation for kidney and liver, people of age group (18-34 years) contributed more to lung donation 44%.

From SAS:

Growing Number of Organ Donors: The number of registered organ donors has been steadily increasing. Public awareness campaigns and education about the importance of organ donation have contributed to more individuals signing up as donors. However, the demand and waiting list alert the healthcare system to take some preventive action on it. Education and awareness should be more focused to prevent organ damage. Health policy should also target reducing the demand for organs through the implementation of preventive methods.

Kidney donation dominates in organ donation followed by liver and heart, which correspond to the demand for the transplant of these organs. Lung donation is also there but increasing at a low pace and intestine and pancreas donations are decreasing over the years.

From Tablue