Redistricting might shorten wait for a new liver
Source: Associated Press
Redistricting might shorten wait for a new liver
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP Medical Writer
Published: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 at 3:16 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 at 3:16 a.m.
Where you live can affect your chances of getting a liver transplant, and your risk of dying while waiting. The nation's transplant network says it's time to make the system fairer - and it may take a cue from how politicians redraw voting maps.
"Gerrymandering for the public good" is how Johns Hopkins University transplant surgeon Dr. Dorry Segev describes a proposal to change the map that governs how donated livers are distributed around the country.
The problem: Some areas have fewer donated organs, and higher demand for them, than others. The sickest patients go to the top of the waiting list. But the geographic variation means that someone in California, among the toughest places to get a new liver, waits longer and is a lot sicker before getting transplanted than someone in Ohio or Florida - if they survive long enough.
"This should not be happening," Segev said.
Segev is advising the United Network for Organ Sharing, which runs the transplant network, as its liver specialists consider the novel idea of "redistricting" how livers are allocated - redrawing the nation's 11 transplant regions based on the distribution and demand for donated organs, much like lawmakers set political districts based on the party voting histories of different areas.
Read more: http://www.goupstate.com/article/20130820/APW/1308200566
= new reply since forum marked as read
My understanding on this issue is *extremely* limited, so if my reply title sounds woefully ignorant, it's because it is woefully ignorant. 
I'm just genuinely curious as to why having zones at all is more beneficial than just combining it all into one pool.
