MODUS is a new project starting in 2020 and has been funded by an NHMRC partnership grant. The CODE team’s partners in the MODUS study are the NSW Ministry of Health, Kidney Health Australia, and the NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Service.
MODUS will develop evidence to support policy and complex clinical decisions in the organ donor referral process in Australia. Using our SAFEBOD linked data as the cohort study platform, we will use advanced statistical methods to better understand retrospective donor referral risk profiles, and determine any potential donor gains that could be made through varying the acceptable biovigilance risk thresholds for accepting donors. Using dynamic compartmental economic modelling, we will investigate the impact of varying donor referral decisions on quality, safety and value of kidney transplant outcomes (transplant and recipient survival). Using results from these exercises, with a pre-post design, we will prospectively evaluate the impact of provision of donor risk profile and absolute biovigilance risk estimates to clinicians on donor referral decision-making.