The Lung Transplant Foundation Partners with ISHLT to Oppose Crucial Lung Allocation Changes

The Lung Transplant Foundation is officially joining forces with The International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) to amplify advocacy efforts regarding the recent change to how donor lungs are distributed. 

The policy change, which took effect in May, reallocated critical points away from categories that impact waitlist survival, moving them to a new category called “Placement Efficiency”. This change occurred despite unanimous opposition from the medical experts on the OPTN Lung Transplantation Committee. It also bypassed the standard prospective public comment period normally required for major policy changes.

In a newly released response, the ISHLT leveled heavy criticism at both the lack of evidence supporting the change, and the use of the emergency action pathway itself. The Society highlighted concerns that the new framework creates a higher dependence on donor-recipient geographic proximity, which could worsen geographic disparities and severely restrict access to transplantation for biologically disadvantaged groups, including blood type O candidates and highly sensitized patients.

“Major allocation policy changes should be supported by rigorous evidence demonstrating both the existence of a problem and the effectiveness of the proposed remedy,” the ISHLT noted in their statement, concluding that the OPTN standard had not been met.

The Lung Transplant Foundation, alongside the ISHLT and a coalition of 17 other pulmonary patient advocacy organizations, is making a final push to rally the patient and caregiver community before the public comment window closes on July 3rd.

To date, nearly 350 advocates have utilized our streamlined advocacy platform to submit a public comment to the OPTN Board of Directors. Our goal is to exceed 500 public submissions to encourage a reassessment of the new policy, allow for the completion of omitted clinical modeling, and firmly protect patient equity.

Every voice matters. You can access the full ISHLT public comment letter directly via the ISHLT Response to Update on Lung Continuous Distribution Policy. To voice your opposition using our one-minute automated letter template, please visit our official action portal below.