Kidney exchange simulation and optimization

Nicolau Santos (), Paolo Tubertini (), Ana Viana () and João Pedro Pedroso ()
Additional contact information
Nicolau Santos: INESC TEC
Paolo Tubertini: DEI - Università di Bologna
Ana Viana: INESC TEC
João Pedro Pedroso: INESC TEC

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2017, vol. 68, issue 12, 1521-1532

Abstract: Abstract One of the challenges in a kidney exchange program (KEP) is to choose policies that ensure an effective and fair management of all participating patients. In order to understand the implications of different policies of patient allocation and pool management, decision makers should be supported by a simulation tool capable of tackling realistic exchange pools and modeling their dynamic behavior. In this paper, we propose a KEP simulator that takes into consideration the wide typology of actors found in practice (incompatible pairs, altruistic donors, and compatible pairs) and handles different matching policies. Additionally, it includes the possibility of evaluating the impact of positive crossmatch of a selected transplant, and of dropouts, in a dynamic environment. Results are compared to those obtained with a complete information model, with knowledge of future events, which provides an upper bound to the objective values. Final results show that shorter time intervals between matches lead to higher number of effective transplants and to shorter waiting times for patients. Furthermore, the inclusion of compatible pairs is essential to match pairs of specific patient–donor blood type. In particular, O-blood type patients benefit greatly from this inclusion.

Keywords: kidney exchange; simulation; optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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DOI: 10.1057/s41274-016-0174-3

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