The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services plans to focus first on ways to increase organ donation, then on the more controversial issue of organ allocation policies, at the initial meeting of the new Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation (ACOT) now set for Dec. 3rd and 4th.

The first day of the meeting of the committee will be devoted to donation issues, starting with a discussion of Secretary Tommy Thompson's donation initiative.

The second day will be dedicated to allocation policy review, starting with kidney/pancreas allocation policies, followed by thoracic policies and liver policy.

"For each organ, the ACOT will consider whether or not to recommend approval of the entire policy and further consider whether any accompanying refinements should be approved," DHHS said.

The Department said that if the United Network for Organ Sharing decides at its November meeting to make a final recommendation to switch from the current prioritization system for liver transplant patients to the MELD system, the advisory committee discussion of the liver policy may be deferred to a subsequent meeting.

Other sources: DHHS