United Network for Organ Sharing

Located in Richmond, Virginia, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is a non-profit, scientific and educational organization that administers the only Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) in the United States, established (42 U.S.C. § 274) by the U.S. Congress in 1984. The organization's headquarters is situated near the intersection of Interstates 95 and 64 in the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park.

UNOS is involved in many aspects of the organ transplant and donation process:

UNOS was awarded the initial OPTN contract on September 30, 1986 and is the only organization to ever manage the OPTN. UNOS provides the OPTN with a functional, effective management system incorporating the Board of Directors, committees and regional membership to operate OPTN elements and activities.

In late December 2013, it was announced that UNOS had developed new policies and regulations governing the new field of hand and face transplants like it does standard organ transplants, giving more Americans who are disfigured by injury or illness a chance at reconstruction. In July 2014, government regulations go into effect making hand and face transplants subject to the same oversight by UNOS as heart or kidney transplants. The rules mean potential transplant recipients will be added to the UNOS network, for matching of donated hands and face tissue to ensure correct tissue type and compatibility for skin color, size, gender and age. Transplants and their outcomes will be tracked.

UNOS and OPTN operate by grouping states into several different regions throughout the country.

UNOS uses a set policy to remove as much subjectivity as possible from the process of matching organs with recipients (referred to as a "match run".) There are several factors that are involved, including, but not limited to:

The individual criteria varies from one organ type to another. For example, with heart and lung transplantation, candidate recipients are given one of four status levels (1A - the highest level, 1B, 2, and 7). A matching born (i.e. not in utero) candidate of Status 1A within the donor region, of matching ABO type, and within 500 miles will be given the highest priority, with multiple matches being ranked by time on the waiting list. Each of those criteria will be progressively relaxed until a match is found.

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