A SERVICE
OF 
HHS Creates
Advisory Committee to Review Allocation Policies
WASHINGTON, D.C.: October 15, 2000 · by TNN Medical Reporter
Virginia Baskerville
- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is creating an
independent advisory committee on organ transplantation to provide HHS with
independent review and advice on organ allocation policies.
Scheduled to
be formed this fall, the committee is being created to "strengthen scientific,
medical, and public involvement in the department's oversight of transplant
policy," HHS said in a statement on September 27.
Creation of the
committee was recommended in 1998 by the Institute of Medicine. Congress had
charged the institute with studying the nation's transplant system in the midst
of bitter debate between HHS and the transplant community over how to best
allocate donor organs in the United States.
Under a final rule
implemented by HHS in March 1999, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation
Network, which is operated by the United Network for Organ Sharing, has been
developing proposals for improving liver allocation policies. "Our new advisory
committee needs to be in place to provide its independent assessment of these
proposals," HHS secretary Donna E. Shalala said in the statement. The committee
will provide HHS with "top-notch, science-based counsel on transplantation
policy," she said.
In addition to reviewing OPTN policies, the committee
is expected examine scientific, public health, ethical, coverage, and financing
issues related to transplantation.
The committee will have up to 20
members.
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