TEHRAN- The first stage of establishing an automated database of organ transplantation will begin on March 1st, said the head of the transplantation and treatment of diseases department at the Ministry of Health. 

“Collecting this database is now the Health Ministry’s priority in the field of organ transplantation,” said Mehdi Shadnoosh in an interview with IRNA on Tuesday. 

“We have taken major steps in developing organ transplantation in Iran but what we need to work on now is how to better manage and regulate this system,” he noted. 

“The second stage of this project will begin in May and the aim is for the whole system of organ donation to be automated in time.” 

The database will include all the information about the people who are awaiting an organ donation; then the system will automatically rank them based on their needs and whenever a new organ is found the top ten on the waiting list will be introduced, he further explained. 

He went on saying that the rankings are based on a variety of factors including the patients’ age, blood type, human leukocyte antigen (HLA), and the urgency of their needs and waiting time. 

“We are also trying to come up with a precise protocol for organ transports, especially when they have to move from one city to another,” the health official added. 

“To do so, we have to collaborate with other organizations including the air transport system and traffic police. We are currently drafting the plans and we hope they will be operational by the next year,” said Shadnoosh. 

Earlier this month, Shadnoosh announced that organ donation rate has increased by 60 times over the past 18 years, though the growth is not considerable compared to the global scale. 

SJ/MQ/MG