Speaker
Description
Transplant registries are of paramount importance to the advancement of transplantation medicine, as they facilitate the centralised and standardised collection of medically relevant data on organ donors, recipients, and living donors. By systematically consolidating this information, registries provide a robust data foundation that enhances quality and transparency throughout the transplantation process and supports evidence-based decision-making. It is only through centralised data collection that critical insights can be gained to refine allocation criteria, improve donor organ assessment, and enhance long-term outcomes for transplant recipients. A well-structured registry is therefore crucial for continuously improving patient care and fostering new scientific approaches that ultimately increase patient safety and treatment success. The German transplant registry was established to serve this purpose, integrating data from key organisations such as the German Organ Transplantation Foundation (DSO), the Dutch Eurotransplant International Foundation (ET), and the Institute for Quality and Transparency in Healthcare (IQTIG). This comprehensive integration of data has resulted in a complex structure involving numerous variables and tables.
While this extensive data set represents a valuable resource, several opportunities have been identified to improve its usability for both clinical practice and research. These include optimising the handling of missing data to streamline the database, managing redundancies arising from overlapping donor and recipient records, and addressing the complexity of the data structure by developing user-friendly solutions. The goal of this study is to unlock the full potential of this rich data set by applying advanced in silico methods for data optimisation. Key steps will involve restructuring, standardising, and eliminating redundancies in accordance with FAIR principles to enhance data quality. By improving accessibility, the objective is to broaden the user base to include scientists and clinical staff – such as physicians, surgeons, and hospital personnel – and facilitate the routine use of transplant data. The development of a low-threshold application is envisaged, with the aim of making this invaluable information readily available to medical professionals, thereby supporting evidence-based decision-making and driving innovation in transplantation medicine.
