Research suggests that introducing new airline routes reduces the discard rate of donated kidneys and increases the number of kidneys sent to transplant centers across the U.S.

In a recent study published online July 9 in the INFORMS journal Management Science, a researcher from The University of Texas at Dallas investigated how introducing new airline routes impacts the sharing of cadaveric kidneys.

«This mismatch between supply and demand of donor organs and the time-sensitive nature of kidney transplantation made us wonder whether better airline logistics infrastructure could help match that supply and demand,» said Dr. Guihua Wang, assistant professor of operations management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management and the study’s lead author.

Wang and co-authors Dr. Ronghuo Zheng of UT Austin and Dr. Tinglong Dai of Johns Hopkins University created a unique sample that tracked both the evolution of airline routes connecting all U.S. airports, and kidney transplants between donors and recipients connected by these airports.

To do this, the researchers merged monthly air-carrier traffic information from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics and individual-level data for all U.S. kidney transplant candidates, donors and recipients from the United Network for Organ Sharing.

The study estimates that each new airline route led to a 7.3% increase in the number of kidneys sent to transplant centers across the U.S. The findings also suggest that introducing a new airline route reduces the discard rate of kidneys by facilitating kidney sharing.

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Texas at Dallas. Original written by Brittany Magelssen. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.