Abstract
Given the perennial imbalance and chronic scarcity between the demand for and supply of available organs, organ allocation is one of the most critical decisions in the management of organ transplantation networks. Organ allocation systems undergo rapid revisions for the sake of improved outcomes in terms of both equity and medical efficiency. This paper presents a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-based model to evaluate the efficiency of possible patient-organ pairs for kidney allocation in order to enhance the fitness of organ allocation under inherent uncertainty in such problem. Eligible patient-kidney pairs are regarded as decision making units (DMUs) in a Credibility-based Fuzzy Common Weights DEA (CFCWDEA) approach and are ranked based on efficiency scores. Using a common set of weights for all DMUs ensures a high degree of fairness in the assessment and ranking of DMUs. The proposed model is also the first allocation method capable of coping with the vague and intervallic medical and nonmedical allocation factors by the aid of fuzzy programming. Verification and validation of the proposed approach are performed in two steps using a real case study from the Iranian kidney allocation system. First, the superiority of the proposed deterministic model in enhancing allocation outcomes is demonstrated and analyzed. Second, the applicability of the proposed fuzzy DEA method is demonstrated using a series of data realizations for different credibility levels.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
“When two people share the same HLAs, they are said to be a “match”, that is, their tissues are immunologically compatible with each other. HLA are proteins that are located on the surface of the white blood cells and other tissues in the body.” For more details visit: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/transplant/html/hla.html
References
WHO (2014) World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/topics/transplantation/en/
OPTN (2016) Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/
OPTN National Data (2017) Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/data/view-data-reports/national-data/. 2017
OPTN Data. (2017) Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/data/. 2017
Rouchi AH, Ghaemi F, Aghighi M (2014) Outlook of organ transplantation in Iran: a time for quality assessment. Iran J Kidney Dis 8(3):185
Kazemeini SM, Bagheri Chime A, Heidari A (2004) Worldwide cadaveric organ donation systems (transplant organ procurement)
MOHME. (2016) Ministry of Health and Medical Education (Iran). http://www.behdasht.gov.ir/
Thompson D, Waisanen L, Wolfe R, Merion RM, McCullough K, Rodgers A (2004) Simulating the allocation of organs for transplantation. Health Care Manag Sci 7(4):331–338
Çay P (2012) Organ transplantation logistics: case for Turkey. BILKENT UNIVERSITY
UNOS. (2016) United Network for Organ Sharing. https://www.unos.org/data/
Lamont J, Favor C (1996) Distributive Justice. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-distributive/
Bioethic Tools: Principles of Bioethics. (2017). https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/tools/princpl.html
Benjamin M (1988) Medical ethics and economics of organ transplantation. Health prog 69(2):47–52
Douglas DD (2003) Should everyone have equal access to organ transplantation?: an argument in favor. Arch Intern Med 163(16):1883–1885
Neuberger J (2003) Should liver transplantation be made available to everyone?: the case against. Arch Intern Med 163(16):1881–1883
Williams A, Evans JG (1997) The rationing debate. Rationing health care by age. BMJ. Br Med J 314(7083):820
Ubel PA, Arnold RM, Caplan AL (1993) Rationing failure: the ethical lessons of the retransplantation of scarce vital organs. JAMA 270(20):2469–2474
Bertsimas D, Farias VF, Trichakis N (2013) Fairness, efficiency, and flexibility in organ allocation for kidney transplantation. Oper Res 61(1):73–87
Szolovits P (1995) Uncertainty and decisions in medical informatics. Methods Inf Med 34(1):111–121
Charnes A, Cooper WW, Rhodes E (1978) Measuring the efficiency of decision making units. Eur J Oper Res 2(6):429–444
Karsak EE, Ahiska SS (2007) A common-weight MCDM framework for decision problems with multiple inputs and outputs. In: International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, Springer, pp 779–790
Genç R (2008) The logistics management and coordination in procurement phase of organ transplantation. Tohoku J Exp Med 216(4):287–296
Ahmadvand S, Pishvaee MS (2016) Design and planning organ transplantation network. In: Topcu YI, Kahraman C (eds) Operations Research Applications in Health Care Management. Springer
Beliën J, De Boeck L, Colpaert J, Devesse S, Van den Bossche F (2013) Optimizing the facility location design of organ transplant centers. Decis Support Syst 54(4):1568–1579
Zahiri B, Tavakkoli-Moghaddam R, Pishvaee MS (2014) A robust possibilistic programming approach to multi-period location–allocation of organ transplant centers under uncertainty. Comput Ind Eng 74:139–148
Bruni ME, Conforti D, Sicilia N, Trotta S (2006) A new organ transplantation location–allocation policy: a case study of Italy. Health Care Manag Sci 9(2):125–142
Demirci MC, Schaefer AJ, Romeijn HE, Roberts MS (2012) An exact method for balancing efficiency and equity in the liver allocation hierarchy. INFORMS J Comput 24(2):260–275
Kong N, Schaefer AJ, Hunsaker B, Roberts MS (2010) Maximizing the efficiency of the US liver allocation system through region design. Manag Sci 56(12):2111–2122
Stahl JE, Kong N, Shechter SM, Schaefer AJ, Roberts MS (2005) A methodological framework for optimally reorganizing liver transplant regions. Med Decis Mak 25(1):35–46
Alagoz O, Schaefer AJ, Roberts MS (2009) Optimizing organ allocation and acceptance. In: Handbook of Optimization in Medicine. Springer, pp 1–24
Alagoz O, Maillart LM, Schaefer AJ, Roberts MS (2004) The optimal timing of living-donor liver transplantation. Manag Sci 50(10):1420–1430
Su X, Zenios SA (2005) Patient choice in kidney allocation: a sequential stochastic assignment model. Oper Res 53(3):443–455
Su X, Zenios SA (2006) Recipient choice can address the efficiency-equity trade-off in kidney transplantation: a mechanism design model. Manag Sci 52(11):1647–1660
Alagoz O, Maillart LM, Schaefer AJ, Roberts MS (2007) Determining the acceptance of cadaveric livers using an implicit model of the waiting list. Oper Res 55(1):24–36
Zenios SA (1999) Modeling the transplant waiting list: a queueing model with reneging. Queueing syst 31(3–4):239–251
Roth AE, Sonmez T, Unver MU (2003) Kidney exchange. National Bureau of Economic Research
David I, Yechiali U (1985) A time-dependent stopping problem with application to live organ transplants. Oper Res 33(3):491–504
David I, Yechiali U (1990) Sequential assignment match processes with arrivals of candidates and offers. Probab Eng Inf Sci 4(04):413–430
David I, Yechiali U (1995) One-attribute sequential assignment match processes in discrete time. Oper Res 43(5):879–884
Ahn J-H, Hornberger JC (1996) Involving patients in the cadaveric kidney transplant allocation process: a decision-theoretic perspective. Manag Sci 42(5):629–641
Zenios SA, Chertow GM, Wein LM (2000) Dynamic allocation of kidneys to candidates on the transplant waiting list. Oper Res 48(4):549–569
Fix M (2016) HLA Matching, Antibodies, and You. http://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/transplant/html/hla.html
Wolfe R, McCullough K, Schaubel D, Kalbfleisch J, Murray S, Stegall MD, Leichtman A (2008) Calculating life years from transplant (LYFT): methods for kidney and kidney-pancreas candidates. Am J Transplant 8(4p2):997–1011
2007 Annual Data Report (2007) Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. http://srtr.transplant.hrsa.gov/annual_reports/Default.aspx
About CPRA - OPTN. (2016). https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/resources/allocation-calculators/about-cpra/
Roll Y, Cook WD, Golany B (1991) Controlling factor weights in data envelopment analysis. IIE Trans 23(1):2–9
Cook WD, Kress M (1990) A data envelopment model for aggregating preference rankings. Manag Sci 36(11):1302–1310
Cook WD, Kress M (1991) A multiple criteria decision model with ordinal preference data. Eur J Oper Res 54(2):191–198
Ganley JA, Cubbin JS (1992) Public sector efficiency measurement: Applications of data envelopment analysis. Elsevier Science Inc.
Sinuany-Stern Z, Mehrez A, Barboy A (1994) Academic departments efficiency via DEA. Comput Oper Res 21(5):543–556
Sinuany-Stern Z, Friedman L (1998) DEA and the discriminant analysis of ratios for ranking units. Eur J Oper Res 111(3):470–478
Liu F-HF, Peng HH (2008) Ranking of units on the DEA frontier with common weights. Comput Oper Res 35(5):1624–1637
Charnes A, Cooper WW, Rhodes E (1987) Measuring efficiency of decision making units. Eur J Oper Res 2:429–444
Hollingsworth B (2008) The measurement of efficiency and productivity of health care delivery. Health Econ 17(10):1107–1128
Ineveld M, Oostrum J, Vermeulen R, Steenhoek A, Klundert J (2016) Productivity and quality of Dutch hospitals during system reform. Health Care Manag Sci 19(3):279–290
Ozcan YA, Begun JW, McKinney MM (1999) Benchmarking organ procurement organizations: a national study. Health Serv Res 34(4):855
Li X-B, Reeves GR (1999) A multiple criteria approach to data envelopment analysis. Eur J Oper Res 115(3):507–517
Karsak E, Ahiska S (2005) Practical common weight multi-criteria decision-making approach with an improved discriminating power for technology selection. Int J Prod Res 43(8):1537–1554
Tavana M, Khalili-Damghani K (2014) A new two-stage Stackelberg fuzzy data envelopment analysis model. Measurement 53:277–296
Zadeh LA (1978) Fuzzy sets as a basis for a theory of possibility. Fuzzy Sets Syst 1(1):3–28
Lertworasirikul S, Fang S-C, Joines JA, Nuttle HL (2003) Fuzzy data envelopment analysis (DEA): a possibility approach. Fuzzy Sets Syst 139(2):379–394
Lertworasirikul S, Fang S-C, Joines JA, Nuttle HL (2003) Fuzzy data envelopment analysis: A credibility approach. In: Fuzzy sets based heuristics for optimization. Springer, pp 141–158
Liu B, Liu Y-K (2002) Expected value of fuzzy variable and fuzzy expected value models. IEEE Trans Fuzzy Syst 10(4):445–450
Liu B (2004) Uncertainty theory: an introduction to its axiomatic foundations. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
Pishvaee M, Razmi J, Torabi S (2014) An accelerated benders decomposition algorithm for sustainable supply chain network design under uncertainty: a case study of medical needle and syringe supply chain. Transp Res E Logist Transp Rev 67:14–38
Prade DDH, Dubois D (1988) Possibility theory: an approach to computerized processing of uncertainty. NY: Plenum
Zhu H, Zhang J (2009) A credibility-based fuzzy programming model for APP problem. In: Artificial Intelligence and Computational Intelligence, AICI'09. International Conference on, 2009. IEEE, pp 455–459
Rouhani S (2016) Robust organ transplant logistics network design under uncertainty in Iran. Iran University of Science and Technology
Charnes A, Cooper WW (1959) Chance-constrained programming. Manag Sci 6(1):73–79
Zhu J (2014) Quantitative models for performance evaluation and benchmarking: data envelopment analysis with spreadsheets, vol 213. Springer
Babazadeh R, Razmi J, Pishvaee MS (2016) Sustainable cultivation location optimization of the Jatropha Curcas L. under uncertainty: a unified fuzzy data envelopment analysis approach. Measurement 89:252–260
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ahmadvand, S., Pishvaee, M.S. An efficient method for kidney allocation problem: a credibility-based fuzzy common weights data envelopment analysis approach. Health Care Manag Sci 21, 587–603 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10729-017-9414-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10729-017-9414-6