This terrific and thoughtful blog post is WAAAAY over my non-math-oriented head, but I enjoyed reading it … so I’m sure any of you who are more mathematically inclined will enjoy it even more.
The blogger writes about a married couple — mathemetician Sommer Gentry and Johns Hopkins transplant surgeon Dorry Segey — who were principal researchers in a paper about how a mathematic algorithm might be applied to pairing thousands of potential donors with thousands of potential kidney recipients in a giant, graceful swap. The paper they wrote suggests that such a mathematical solution could be a major part of the solution to the organ shortage for kidney recipients, provided it is paired with the appropriate controls to protect social justice and other sociological issues. (At least, I think that’s what it said! 
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Wow. This idea might be worth cracking out my old algebra book to understand better!
Hi Becky – you might find this link of interest – another story about how to increase the number of trainsplants. I work with an organization that arranges kidney swaps, and the chains we do are a little different from the ones Segev and Gentry describe. You can learn more about it here with this short video:
http://www.paireddonation.org/cbsvideo.html
Thanks for your post.
Laurie Reece
Alliance for Paired Donation
Greetings,
I have created a blog to chronicle our endeavors across the United States to build awareness for organ & tissue donation.
Please visit: http://donatelife-organdonation.blogspot.com
Feel free to let your readers know about this blog resource and to encourage similar story and picture submissions.
Many thanks,
Glenn, Heart Transplant Recipient, 1995
Thats awesome, as a live kidney donor i would want my kidney to help as many people as possible
Visit the Amador Siblings website