Kidney Exchange Program Reporting Standards:Evidence-Based Consensus From Europe

BackgroundKidney Exchange Programs can play an important role to increase access to the life saving and most cost-effective treatment forEnd Stage Renal Disease. The rise of national KEPs in Europe brings a need for standardized performance reporting to facilitatethe development of an international evidence base on program practices.MethodsWe systematically searched and reviewed the literature to extract kidney exchange program performance measures. Reportedmeasures were initially categorized as structure, process, and outcome measures. Expert feedback was used to redefinecategories and extend the set of measures to be considered. Using the Delphi method and a panel of ten experts, the resultingmeasures were subsequently classified as mandatory (Base set), optional (Extended set), or deleted.ResultsOut of the initial 1668 articles identified by systematic literature search, 21 European publications on kidney exchange programswere included to collect performance measures, accompanied by three national program reports. The final measurementcategories were Context, Population, Enrollment, Matching, Transplantation, and Outcomes. The set of performance measuresresulting from the literature review was modified and classified as mandatory or optional. The resulting Base set and Extendedset form the kidney exchange program reporting standard.ConclusionsThe evidence-based and consensus-based kidney exchange program reporting standard can harmonize practical and scientificreporting on kidney exchange programs, thus facilitating the advancement of national programs. In addition, the kidney exchangeprogram reporting standard can promote and align cross-national programs