Naoru Koizumi, Professor, Associate Dean of Research, Schar School of Policy and Government; Hadi El-Amine, Assistant Professor, Systems Engineering and Operations Research (SEOR); and Chun-Hung Chen, Professor, SEOR, received funding from the National Science Foundation for the project: "Collaborative Research: SCH: Optimal Desensitization Protocol in Support of a Kidney Paired Donation (KPD) System." The research team also includes researchers at the University of Maryland at College Park and the University of Louisville.
The research will explore how the integration of simulation and optimization models can dramatically improve the quality of life for end-stage renal disease patients. Partnering with kidney transplant programs at Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital and George Washington University Hospital, the research team aims to increase organ-transplant access for underserved minority patients, particularly for those from low socioeconomic African-American communities. Specifically, the research will develop an integrated dynamic stochastic simulation-optimization model comprised of: (i) an optimization strategy to identify the optimal personalized protocol for desensitization; (ii) improved robust/stochastic optimization methods to integrate the desensitization therapy into the Kidney Paired Donation (KPD) matching; and (iii) a decision-support tool to help patients decide whether to accept the desensitization regimen with a less compatible kidney, or wait for a more compatible one. The output of the integrated dynamic stochastic simulation-optimization model will include the suggested paired matchings from the combinatorial and simulation optimization algorithms, the realized matchings based on simulated patient behavior, and statistical estimates of key performance system metrics. The models that the team will create may also be applied to other organ transplant systems (heart, lungs, liver) and will inform policy decisions by central administrative groups such as United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the administrative body currently in charge of organ allocations.
The researchers received $677,361 (as part of the $996,766 award in total) from NSF for this project. Funding began in October 2021 and will end in late September 2025.
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