BrickHouse Security, a leading provider of security and surveillance products to businesses and consumers, today announced that, in partnership with the National Kidney Registry (NKR), they have implemented the first real-time GPS tracking system for the shipment of living donor organs.
“We can pinpoint the location of the kidney throughout all stages of the shipping process and the transplant team can see the movement of the organ on its way to the center, allowing the surgical team to adjust the timing of the surgery to minimize organ cold time”
The National Kidney Registry is the leader in facilitating paired exchange kidney transplants and has completed more exchange transplants than any organization in the world. In order to facilitate a paired exchange transplant, once an organ has been removed from a donor, that organ is shipped to one the 50 transplant centers in the NKR network.
To ensure safety of the shipped kidney, a P-Trac Pro 8200 GPS Tracking Device from BrickHouse Security is utilized to enable the National Kidney Registry and the transplant centers participating in the exchange to receive real-time updates of the location of the shipped kidney via any web connection. For example, an exchange was initiated in June between a California center (donor) and a hospital in New York that was performing the transplant. Both hospitals were able to log on to their computers and monitor the movement of the organ across the country until its successful arrival in New York.
"We can pinpoint the location of the kidney throughout all stages of the shipping process and the transplant team can see the movement of the organ on its way to the center, allowing the surgical team to adjust the timing of the surgery to minimize organ cold time," said Tom Mollo, Executive Director of the National Kidney Registry. "This has proved to be tremendously beneficial in increasing the comfort level of everyone involved in the paired exchange process."
"When patient safety is on the line, it's critical that our systems are accurate and reliable," said Garet Hil, Founder and President of NKR, "and the GPS technology from BrickHouse Security is helping us further improve the paired exchange process."
"We're proud to be working with the National Kidney Registry, as we're gratified to see a powerful and compelling use of our GPS technology to improve patient safety and save lives," said Todd Morris, CEO, BrickHouse Security.
Kidney-CHAMP framework provides equitable access and overcomes barriers to kidney disease care