New Company Wants To Run Nation's Transplant Network

By Laura Meckler

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- A newly formed Pittsburgh firm is bidding to run the nation's transplant network, giving the government a chance to snatch the contract away from the organization that has fought its efforts to give more organs to the sickest patients.

The new firm, called the Center for the Support of the Transplant Committee, argues that it can save up to 5,000 lives each year by recruiting more organ donors, distributing organs more fairly and improving the matching of organs and transplant patients.

Like the Department of Health and Human Services, it argues that more organs should go to the sickest patients.

It will compete with the United Network for Organ Sharing, which has run the system since 1987, often clashing with HHS. The contracts generally run for three years, with options for extensions.

HHS plans to award the new contract by Sept. 30. It would not say if there are other bidders, and these are the only two that have identified themselves publicly.

The new non-profit firm is made up of two Pittsburgh companies: a research firm with ties to the University of Pittsburgh, which has lobbied heavily for new organ distribution policies; and a data-management company -- Management Science Associates -- that argues its experience placing cable TV ads and marketing Bugles snacks can be applied to organ transplants.

Consad Research Corp. worked for the University of Pittsburgh for six years, developing research that supported the university's crusade for new policies that would have sent more organs to the sickest patients, many of whom come to the university.

Consad no longer works for the university, said company vice president Mark Joensen. He acknowledged that his expertise comes from working on that contract, and he predicted that those who support the United Network for Organ Sharing will paint the new bid as "a takeover by Pittsburgh."

UNOS Executive Director Walter Graham declined to comment on the Pittsburgh connection but expressed skepticism that another organization can do a better job on organ transplants.

"We've got the best minds in the country working on this," he said. "We continue to find improvements but there's no one big thing that anybody has identified that's going to make a huge difference."

The new company submitted on Tuesday the final piece of its bid to run the transplant network and the scientific registry, which collects data on transplants.

Over the years, UNOS has faced little competition in keeping the contract to run the system. Rand Corp., a well-known research firm, considered bidding but withdrew in November, saying it didn't want to get mixed up in the nasty battle over transplant policy.

HHS wants organs to be distributed over a wider geographical area so more organs will go to the sickest patients. UNOS, reflecting the concerns of many transplant centers, defends the current system that gives local hospitals first crack at donations, even if there are sicker patients elsewhere.

The new bidder says it can save lives with broader distribution and promises a better job marketing organ donation and working with local organ banks to improve their recruitment efforts. Joensen said it would also work more vigorously to force substandard organ transplant programs to improve their medical techniques.

Joensen's firm has joined with Management Science Associates, the data company, even though it has never worked on organ transplants. It says its commercial experience can be brought to bear on the transplant system.

Alfred Kuehn, the company's chairman, said his firm developed a way for advertisers to target their buys on cable TV, developed more effective ways for steel mills to operate and is working to improve analysis of cancer cells to identify proper treatments. He said his company also concluded that Bugles would be a snack-food success for General Mills, saving the company millions it planned for market testing.

On the Net: The United Network for Organ Sharing: http://www.unos.org/

HHS Division of Transplantation: www.hrsa.gov/OSP/dot/dotmain.htm

Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press.

This article posted June 22, 2000.