§274f–3 Studies Relating to Organ Donation and the Recovery, Preservation, and Transportation of Organs

Summary

The Secretary, through the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, must create and share scientific evidence to help increase organ donation and to make organ recovery, preservation, and transportation better. The work includes funding studies to test new methods or technologies, doing regular reviews of medical research so guidelines stay current, making results easy for organ procurement staff to use, and working with professional societies, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, and other groups to develop and spread proven practices. The Secretary must also support research and sharing of findings to make a common clinical vocabulary for organ recovery, use information technology and telecommunications to help organ procurement operations, improve workforce skills in quality improvement, and evaluate specific recovery, preservation, and transport technologies. Congress provided $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2005 and whatever sums are needed for fiscal years 2006 through 2009 for these activities.