Fujita Health University in Aichi Prefecture will establish an entity with partners as early as November to apply to the health ministry for a license to operate organ transplant mediation services. If approved, it would be the first partial transfer of tasks from the Japan Organ Transplant Network under the ongoing medical transplantation system reform. The new entity could begin operations as early as this fiscal year.
The Japan Organ Transplant Network (JOT) handles tasks such as explaining organ donation to families of potential donors and selecting recipients, among others in medical transplantation. However, with the JOT's workload strained, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has accelerated reforms to transfer some operations to regional entities, launching a solicitation for such entities in late September.
Fujita Health University will establish a general incorporated association with a transplant promotion group and others in the Chubu region to apply for a license to conduct organ transplant mediation services under the Organ Transplant Law. The ministry will decide on issuing the license after consulting a third-party organization.
The envisaged entity will employ several nurses and staff with prior experience at the JOT. Upon contact from hospitals in Aichi, Mie, Shizuoka, Gifu, Fukui, Ishikawa, and Toyama prefectures regarding potential donors, it will dispatch staff to assist families. It will also handle bringing in doctors from other hospitals for organ harvesting and securing transport methods. The ministry plans to subsidize the entity's labor costs and equipment purchases.
In September, medical professionals nationwide attended a ministry meeting explaining the establishment of such entities. Fujita Health University Hospital ranks among Japan's highest for brain-dead donor organ transplants. It has provided families with preliminary organ donation options before formal explanations when patients show brain death signs, concluding that its cultivated expertise can apply to the new entity's operations.