Event – Distinguished Talk: Screening Strategies for Patients on the Kidney Transplant Waiting List (Feb. 16)

UTORG Distinguished Talk
Screening Strategies for Patients on the Kidney Transplant Waiting List
Professor Steven Shechter, Sauder School of Business, UBC

When: February 16, 2017, 11:00am – 12:00pm
Where: MB128, UofT St. George Campus

Abstract: Patients on the kidney transplant waiting list are at higher risk for developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), which makes them ineligible for transplant. Because CVD is often a silent disease, transplant centers screen waiting patients at various intervals to identify patients with CVD. We propose a model for deciding screening times, with the objective of minimizing the sum of the expected screening costs and an expected penalty cost associated with transplanting an organ to a patient with hidden CVD. Our results suggest that current screening guidelines, which are only based on patients’ risk for developing CVD, are significantly dominated by policies that also consider factors related to patients’ waiting time.

Announcement at: UTORG