Organ transplantation policy evaluation

• Published in: Winter Simulation Conference Proceedings, 1995 pp. 1314 - 1323
• Main Authors: Pritsker, A.A.B., Martin, D.L., Reust, J.S., Wagner, M.A., Wilson, J.R., Kuhl, M.E., Allen, M.D., Daily, O.P., Harper, A.M., Edwards, E.B., Bennett, L.E., Roberts, J.P., Burdick, J.F.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 1995
• Subjects: Board of Directors; Data structures; Humans; Industrial engineering; Liver; Medical simulation; Organizing; Polynomials; Procurement; US Department of Transportation
• ISBN: 0780330188; 9780780330184
• DOI: 10.1109/WSC.1995.479041

The paper on the UNOS Liver Allocation Model (ULAM) describes the building of a simulation model that supports policy evaluation for a national medical problem. The modeling and simulation techniques used in building ULAM include: fitting donor and patient arrival processes having trend and cyclic rate components using non-homogeneous Poisson processes (NHPPs) having exponential rate functions which may include both a polynomial and some trigonometric components, fitting distributions to data on transition times between states of medical urgency; application of variance reduction techniques using common random-number streams and prior information; organizing data structures for efficient file searching and ranking capabilities; the use of bootstrapping techniques for attribute sampling; the building of submodels employing biostatistical procedures such as Kaplan-Meier and logistic regression; and the characterization of performance measures within a complex political, economic and social environment. ULAM provides a means for producing quantitative information to support the selection of a liver allocation policy.