NHS to roll out new organ donor system

New software is based on similar system used in US and Europe

Organ donations save lives

The first 15 offers of organs for transplantation have been completed using a new NHS system to allocate donated organs to transplant units.

NHS Blood and Transplant's Electronic Offering System (EOS) will be rolled out UK-wide this month after the initial tests were successful.

The EOS system uses a mix of electronic forms and computer graphics to record and store donor data and identify organs available for transplantation.

It speeds up the allocation process and frees up Donor Transplant Co-ordinators to spend more time supporting donor families.

Co-ordinators use a set of web-enabled forms to record donor information in real time on 3G-enabled laptops. These are communicated to the National Transplant Database over a secure 3G organisation-wide network.

John Richardson, team leader for NHS Blood and Transplant's Donor Transplant Co-ordinators in London, said that the system was modelled on those used in the Europe and the US.

"Now we have EOS that will allow for the electronic transmission of data to all those involved in the process, allowing quicker access to accurate donor information," he said.

The system was delivered by Sapient.