Division of Transplantation Associate Professor and Associate Director of Transplant Analytics, Informatics, and Quality Paul MacLennan, Ph.D., has been appointed an at-large member of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Data Advisory Committee.

MacLennan will serve a three-year term on the committee. In accepting this role, MacLennan affirmed his commitment to being an active and engaged participant in the operations of the OTPN, which notes that committees are essential to the policy development process.

The OPTN is a unique public-private partnership that links all professionals involved in the U.S. donation and transplantation system. A driving force of the OPTN is to improve the U.S. system so that more life-saving organs are available for transplant.

MacLennan was appointed to this position because of his work on equitable transplantation. He is able to use his methodological expertise–utilizing both primary and secondary data types from local and national sources for cross-sectional, retrospective, prospective, longitudinal and repeated measures data– to examine how organ allocation policies will impact patients and potentially widen disparities.

MacLennan has worked alongside Director of the Division of Transplantation and Arnold G. Diethelm Endowed Chair in Transplantation Surgery Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, to publish responses to policy changes in organ allocation, and more.

“I look forward to using data to tell the story of health disparities in organ allocation,” said MacLennan. “I am honored to represent the UAB Division of Transplantation and the Comprehensive Transplant Institute on this national stage and have a voice to advocate for equitable organ allocation.”