In the New England Journal of Medicine researchers report new computer models can now link strangers in a life-saving chain of kidney transplants, promising to increase the number of transplants and overcome obstacles posed by logistics or donors who renege.
 
Donor registry software programs sift through thousands of pairs of recipients and their living donors, analyze participant characteristics, then construct an optimal chain of transplant pairs.  For patients in need of a kidney transplant, the data-driven approach to transplantation pairings should shrink the rolls of patients on waiting lists. 

This article originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of Kidney Transplant Today.