“THE GREAT AMERICAN KIDNEY SWAP”. I posted here in 2012 about a use of the economic matching models for which that year’s Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Professors Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley. That use is in constructing algorithms which facilitate complicated exchanges of kidneys. The post proudly referenced the work done in this area by my nephew Andrew Schaefer.
This weekend’s New York Times magazine (April 30) had an article by Malia Wallan entitled “THE GREAT AMERICAN KIDNEY SWAP” which should call more people’s attention to this new approach to saving the lives of kidney patients (link courtesy of Instapundit). The article describes the magnitude of the success that has been achieved with these programs. Last year 544 kidneys were transplanted in the United States through this kind of matching program (for comparison, last year 4270 people died in the United States while waiting for a kidney transplant). In terms of complexity, there is currently a 70-person chain that is in the process of being completed.