How small changes can have large impact: Al Roth on Kidney Exchange

Nobel Laureate Al Roth discusses how a simple tweak in process of allocating kidneys can drastically increase life of patients.

Takeaway Idea: Incremental but smart changes can drastically improve outcomes

http://youtu.be/9j-MmYir2nE

Effective availability of kidney to patients with renal failure is important, as it is a matter of life and death. But there are many problems with it, even if a patient has a willing donor as often there is a type mismatch where the willing donor’s kidney does not match the needs of the patient. In this video, Economist and Nobel Laureate Al Roth discusses how a small tweak in process of allocating kidneys can drastically improve the availability of matching kidneys to patients.

Paired and Three paired exchanges have limitations. They need to happen simultaneously to mitigate risks of free riding. Donor chains can be a possible option, where an altruistic donor is not linked to a patient with no willing donor, but is made to be an initiator of a donor chain. Such a donor chain can scale up the number of possible kidney exchanges several times!

Al Roth has a powerful underlying message, how small changes in how we do things can have a huge impact!