Il trasporto degli organi: criteri di sicurezza, qualità e sostenibilità

The outcome of organ transplantation activities is greatly affected by the ability to haul quickly and safely organs and medical teams with due respect of times of ischemia. Organs allocation and usage criteria have greatly improved over time; whereas transport has to be optimized with a greater focus on criteria such as safety, level of service, efficiency, and sustainability. The Italian National Transplant Centre, in partnership with the Regions and the University of Bologna, has promoted a thorough analysis of all stages of organ transportation logistic chain in order to produce homogeneous and shared guidelines throughout the national territory. As soon as the mapping of all 44 Italian Transplant Centres (TC) and the pertaining airport network has been implemented, a national campaign of real-time monitoring of organ transport activities at all stages of the supply chain has been implemented on supra-regional basis. Parameters investigated have been Hospital and Region of both origin and destination TCs, number and typology of organs involved, transport typology (with or without medical team), stations of arrival and departure, shipping agents as well as actual times of activities involved. National guidelines to select shipping agents and organ storage units have been issued, foreseeing EU-level standards on a) technical equipment of aircrafts; b) professional requirements of shipping agencies and cabin crew; c) requirements on service provision, including pricing criteria. The introduction of guidelines issuing minimum requirements on topics such as medical team, packaging, labelling, safety and integrity, identification, real-time monitoring of temperature, traceability of the organ during the logistic chain in the Italian legislation is deemed a valid response to the necessity of improving safety, reliability and sustainability of organ transplantation activities in Italy.