ABSTRACT
Resource allocation problems are ubiquitous in the optimization literature, and perhaps no resource is more ethically and practically challenging to allocate than the limited number of suitable solid organs for transplantation. The most frequently transplanted solid organs are kidney and liver, in that order. Optimization models may consider the objectives of and decisions made by various stakeholders in transplantation, such as individual recipients (living donor livers) [1], or society in the form of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) (deceased donor kidneys) [2]. Su et al. demonstrated that individual autonomy can degrade the performance of a societal optimization mechanism [3]. This chapter will focus on the case of kidney paired donation, introducing both the medical background and
mathematical tools used to find a societally optimal allocation of organs for this type of transplant [4].
