A project to better match up kidney patients with organ donors has launched as the first social enterprise to spin out from the University of Glasgow.
The venture, known as KEPsoft Collaborative, will provide software and services to help "swap" living donors who are willing but medically incompatible between patients. In doing so, it is hoped the project will help to ease the acute shortage of donors for living kidney transplantations, which offer much better long-term survival prospects compared to dialysis.
KEPsoft is headed by up chief executive Vijay Luthra, a former NHS consultant and strategic health advisor who is himself a renal transplantee.
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"The social enterprise model allows us to focus on the needs of the most important stakeholders, namely kidney patients waiting for a transplant," Mr Luthra said. "It also recognises the collaborative nature of the work, including by our founding members.”
He is joined by Professor David Manlove of the University of Glasgow, scientific advisor to KEPsoft, along with representatives from other founding members of the not-for-profit collaboration. They include Portuguese research institute INESC TEC, the HUN-REN Centre for Economic and Regional Studies based in Budapest, and Hungary's Óbuda University.
In the UK, algorithms developed by Professor Manlove and his colleagues have been used to find optimal solutions for the UK Living Kidney Sharing Scheme (UKLKSS), which is the largest kidney exchange programme in Europe and and is operated by NHS Blood and Transplant.
Between 2008 and 2024, it is estimated the algorithms led to 600 more kidney transplants taking place, compared to the estimated number that would have occurred had the previous algorithm continued to be used.
KEPsoft will initially focus on European transplant organisations, but will also engage with organisations beyond Europe.
Software developed by the company’s founding members has been used by national organisations that run kidney exchange programmes (KEPs) within their respective countries for a number of years, but there are still many countries without KEPs. In total, it is estimated that approximately 850 million people worldwide have kidney disease.
The initial EURO-KEP project will led by the Spanish National Transplant Organisation and co-funded by the European Union to leverage and further customise the KEPsoft platform.
“Beyond the founding institutions, the project has enjoyed wide collaboration including the ENCKEP COST Action, funded by the European Union, which had 28 participating countries," Professor Manlove said.
“KEPsoft has also had input from stakeholders from a range of disciplines, including policy makers, clinicians, surgeons, nephrologists, immunologists, computer scientists and economists.”
