Issuing Next Generation IT Solicitation and Launching OPTN Board Special Election Process with a New Nominating Committee Represent Major Advances in Historic Reform of Organ Transplant System
Today, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced two key advances in the historic effort to improve the Nation’s organ transplant system and better serve the patients, families, donors and health care providers who make transplantation possible. HRSA is:
- Releasing a new solicitation to support the next generation of Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) technology infrastructure that is agile, resilient, interoperable, and user-friendly; and
- Launching the special election process for a new OPTN Board of Directors with the formation of a Transitional Nominating Committee, a critical step in HRSA’s commitment to strengthen OPTN governance, mitigate conflicts of interest, and establish independence.
“Modernizing the organ transplant system to better serve the more than 100,000 people on the organ transplant waiting list has been one of HRSA’s top priorities in the Biden-Harris Administration,” said HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson. “With bipartisan leaders in Congress, we have worked to reform this lifesaving system to ensure that it meets the highest standards for performance, transparency, and accountability. Americans on the organ waitlist deserve no less. We look forward to the progress to come in the months and years ahead as HRSA continues to implement the bipartisan Securing the U.S. OPTN Act.”
The new solicitation released today will enable HRSA to modernize OPTN IT systems and build on the OPTN modernization awards announced in September 2024. As a Multiple Award Blanket Purchase Agreement, it will allow HRSA to engage with experienced vendors to develop key pieces of the modern OPTN IT system in a timely and efficient manner. The solicitation is posted on the General Services Administration e-Buy platform and announced on SAM.gov.
A transitional nominating committee will support the Special Election for a new OPTN Board of Directors, which in partnership with HRSA oversees organ allocation policy and membership standards. In forming the Transitional Nominating Committee, HRSA solicited public input, engaged with community members, and sought input from board governance and organizational leadership experts. The nominating committee will publicly solicit candidates for the board, develop a slate of board candidates for a vote by OPTN members, and select a date in spring 2025 for the special election. Members of the Transitional Nominating Committee will not be eligible to serve on the new OPTN Board of Directors. The committee is temporary and will be dissolved once the Special Election is completed.
The nominating committee includes individuals with extensive clinical transplant expertise, patients with transplant experience, leaders with extensive board governance expertise and ethics experts. For the full list of the Transitional Nominating Committee, see HRSA’s OPTN Modernization Initiative webpage.
Together, these actions build on HRSA’s ongoing efforts to improve the transplant system for those on the waitlist by bolstering OPTN performance, transparency, and accountability including:
- Securing passage of the bipartisan Securing the U.S. OPTN Act to modernize the system for the first time in four decades.
- Working with Congress to receive a significant increase in congressional appropriations to support this critical modernization work.
- Transitioning from a single OPTN vendor to multiple vendors with distinct expertise to better support OPTN operations to reflect the comprehensive skills needed to manage this critical network.
- Separating the OPTN Board of Directors from the OPTN contractor to remedy potential conflicts and for the first time in 40 years, ensure that the OPTN Board of Directors is independent rather than one-and-the-same as the corporate boards of the vendor.
- Addressing “pre-waitlist” inequities in the transplant waitlist process and reducing variation in organ procurement practices.
Learn more about the OPTN Modernization Initiative.