By NATSUMI ADACHI/ Staff Writer
October 24, 2024 at 15:41 JST
The central government building that houses the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
The health ministry plans to update standards created more than a quarter-century ago to ensure that patients with the highest medical urgency can receive hearts from donors declared brain-dead, officials said.
Under revised standards, top priority would be given to those under 60 years of age who are expected to live only for a month or less without a transplant, they said.
The plan was approved on Oct. 23 at a ministry committee meeting of experts.
Organ recipients are selected by taking into consideration such factors as medical urgency, age and length of waiting period; criteria vary by organ.
For heart transplants, the group of patients with the highest medical urgency currently include people fitted with a ventricular assist device.
However, those categorized into the group account for 70 percent of all candidate recipients.
As a result, factors other than medical urgency, such as waiting period duration, tend to weigh heavily in the selection of recipients.
The standards on medical urgency have never been revised since they were established in 1997, despite advances in medical technologies and other changes.
The health ministry plans to review priorities in transplants of other organs, such as lungs, by revising standards on medical urgency.
Committee members also discussed the ministry’s plans to redefine the role of the Japan Organ Transplant Network (JOT), which mediates organ donations.
The ministry proposed the change because staff shortages at the organization have been cited as a reason for stalled organ transplants.
Under the plan, the JOT would focus on organ matching and other activities by transferring other operations, such as coordination with donors’ families, to a new organization.
The ministry also presented plans to allow patients waiting for a transplant to register with multiple medical institutions.
Currently, they can only register with one institution, except for kidney transplants.
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