Kepsoft Community

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Kepsoft Community: Opportunity

Bespoke algorithms developed by UofG and partners continue to increase the number of kidney transplants arranged through a number of national transplant organisations. The team has developed best practice software for the optimisation of Kidney Exchange Programmes (KEPs).

Kepsoft Community is planning a pathway in which ten or more KEPs within Europe partner up over the next five years. With this customer base, Kepsoft Community will likely become a sustainable social enterprise and craft a future of co-creating international joint best practices to advance the health of the growing population of patients suffering from end stage renal disease (ESRD) in Europe and beyond.

Key advantages of the prospective social enterprise project include:

  • Software products and services that enable customers  to optimise KEPs using a configurable optimisation module for national and international KEPs;

  • A trusted partner in the European transplantation community which enables sharing of best practices and innovations and translates these into software and services

  • A world-leading team rooted in a critical mass of experts

Based on world-leading advanced research for over a decade, in partnership with transplant organisations, Kepsoft Community offers an exciting opportunity to deliver real value to patients suffering from ESRD.

 

Team

  • Professor David Manlove, Scientific Adviser, UofG
  • Dr William Pettersson, Research Software Engineer, UofG (due to start in post on 1 July 2023)

Working group leaders of the KEP-SOFT project, which delivered the software referred to above:

  • Dr Péter Biró, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Budapest, Hungary
  • Dr Rita Fleiner, Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary
  • Prof Joris van de Klundert (Business Plan Chair, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Chile)
  • Dr Michal Mankowski, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  • Prof Ana Viana, INESC TEC, Porto, Portugal

Impact

Usage of optimal algorithms for KEPs will lead to an increased number of kidney transplants across Europe.  For example, since NHS Blood and Transplant started to use matching algorithms developed at UoG for the UK KEP,  there have been just under 1700 transplants to date, representing an estimated 43% increase on the number of transplants that would have occurred, had the former algorithm continued to be used.

More generally, the use of optimal algorithms for KEPs particularly benefit highly sensitised (i.e., hardest-to-match) recipients and those from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Increased opportunities for kidney transplants will, in turn, reduce waiting times and free up recipients from dialysis, enabling them to resume normal, working lives.  Removing recipients from dialysis also leads to large financial savings for healthcare organisations, which can then be redeployed to other areas that require funding.

Ways to keep in touch

https://www.kepsoft-cost.eu describes the KEP-SOFT project that led to the creation of the Kepsoft Community software.

Get involved!

Can you help us? We are looking for people who share our values, that are passionate and committed, who can be creative in building new enterprises, and work closely with our team and stakeholders to deliver outstanding impact in Scotland and beyond.