KidneyAlgo: New Algorithms for UK and International Kidney Exchange

KidneyAlgo：英国和国际肾脏交换的新算法

• 批准号: EP/X013618/1
• 负责人: David Manlove
• 金额: $ 58.22万
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX013618%2F1
• 关键词: KidneyAlgo; New; Algorithms; UK; International

Kidney failure can have a devastating impact on patients' lives. Transplantation offers much better long-term survival prospects compared to dialysis, but there is an acute shortage of donors. Compared to deceased kidney donation, living-donor kidney donation (LKD) has even better long-term patient and transplant outcomes. However, medical incompatibility, for example, may prevent a living donor from donating a kidney to a loved one who is in need.Kidney Exchange Programmes (KEPs) help to increase LKD by allowing recipients who require a kidney transplant, and who have a willing but medically incompatible donor, to "swap" their donor with that of another recipient, leading to a cycle of transplants. Altruistic donors may trigger chains of transplants that can also benefit multiple recipients.The UK Living Kidney Sharing Scheme (UKLKSS), which is operated by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), is the largest KEP in Europe. Algorithms developed by Manlove and his colleagues have been used by NHSBT to find optimal solutions for UKLKSS matching runs every quarter since 2008. There are several ways in which the UKLKSS can be expanded and strengthened in the future, to facilitate better matches and more transplants, as follows:1. Cycles and chains are currently restricted in length for logistical reasons. Allowing longer cycles and chains than at present will lead to more kidney transplants.2. International collaboration between the UK and other countries will lead to more transplantation opportunities, particularly for highly sensitised (hard to match) recipients.3. In the presence of longer cycles and chains, and international collaboration, the existing interpretation of an "optimal" solution will no longer be valid. Conducting simulations will allow NHSBT to determine exactly what they wish to optimise in the light of long-term effects on simulated data.Delivering these enhancements will involve tackling the following complex research challenges:(RC1): design algorithms for larger pools and longer cycles / chains. As the underlying computational problem of finding an optimal set of kidney exchanges is intractable, advanced techniques are required to find a solution efficiently.(RC2): design algorithms for international kidney exchange. When multiple countries are participating in an international KEP, key considerations of fairness and stability become important.(RC3): design algorithms to cope with changes to optimality criteria. A small change to an optimality objective can necessitate significant changes to the algorithm to find an optimal solution.(RC4): create a dynamic dataset generator, producing instances that reflect real-world characteristics. This will give realistic estimates of the effects of different optimality criteria for NHSBT.The proposed project will meet all these challenges via a new collaboration between Glasgow and Durham. This will provide a synergy between the expertise of Manlove in matching problems and kidney exchange, and that of Paulusma in game-theoretic aspects of matching problems and international kidney exchange.The main resources requested are Postdoctoral Research Associates at Glasgow and Durham, and a Research Software Engineer at Glasgow. The project partner NHSBT will be a key member of the project team. The project will also benefit from the expertise of the following visiting researchers: Maxence Delorme (Tilburg University, operational research), Péter Biró and Márton Benedek (KRTK Budapest, algorithmic game theory).The work programme comprises three interconnected work packages, as follows:WP1: design of new algorithms for national KEPs, using advanced integer programming techniques.WP2: design of new algorithms for international KEPs, using techniques from cooperative game theory.WP3: software implementation and experimental evaluation, which will include building new software for the UKLKSS, realising the impact of this project.

肾衰竭会对患者的生活产生毁灭性影响。与透析相比，移植提供了更好的长期生存前景，但捐助者急剧短缺。与已故的肾脏捐赠相比，活鼻肾捐赠（LKD）具有更好的长期患者和移植结果。但是，例如，医学上的不兼容性可能会阻止活着的捐助者向有需要的亲人捐赠肾脏。KidneyExchange计划（KEPS）通过允许需要肾脏移植的接受者来帮助增加LKD，他们有愿意但愿意但有医疗的捐助者，可以将其捐赠者“与其他受体交换”，从而将其交换为移植者，从而导致了一个循环的型号。利他主义捐助者可能会触发可能受益于多个接受者的移植链。英国生活肾脏共享计划（UKLKSS）是由NHS血液和移植（NHSBT）运营的，是欧洲最大的KEP。 NHSBT已使用Manlove及其同事开发的算法来为UKLKSS匹配跑步找到最佳解决方案。自2008年以来，每个季度每个季度都可以找到多种方式，可以通过几种方式扩展和加强UKLKS，以促进更好的匹配和更多的移植物，如下所示：1。由于后勤原因，目前循环和链条的长度受到限制。允许比目前更长的循环和链条会导致更多的肾脏移植。2。英国与其他国家之间的国际合作将带来更多的移植机会，尤其是对于高度敏感（难以匹配）的接受者3。在存在更长的周期和链条以及国际合作的情况下，对“最佳”解决方案的现有解释将不再有效。进行模拟将使NHSBT根据对模拟数据的长期影响确切确定他们希望优化的内容。这些增强功能将涉及应对以下复杂的研究挑战：（RC1）：较大池的设计算法和较大的循环 /链 /链。由于找到一组最佳肾脏交换的基本计算问题是棘手的，因此需要先进的技术才能有效地找到解决方案。（RC2）：国际肾脏交换的设计算法。当多个国家参加国际KEP时，公平和稳定的关键考虑因素就变得很重要。（RC3）：设计算法，以应对最佳标准的变化。对最佳目标的微小更改必须对算法进行重大更改以找到最佳解决方案。（RC4）：创建动态数据集生成器，从而产生反映现实世界特征的实例。这将为NHSBT的不同最优标准的影响提供现实的估计。拟议的项目将通过格拉斯哥和达勒姆之间的新合作来应对所有这些挑战。这将在匹配问题中的Manlove的专业知识与肾脏交易所的专业知识与匹配问题的游戏理论方面和国际肾脏交易所的Paulusma之间提供协同作用。要求的主要资源是格拉斯哥和达勒姆的博士后研究协会，以及格拉斯哥的研究软件工程师。项目合作伙伴NHSBT将是项目团队的关键成员。 The project will also benefit from the expertise of the following visiting researchers: Maxence Delorme (Tilburg University, operational research), Péter Biró and Márton Benedek (KRTK Budapest, algorithmic game theory).The work programme comprises three interconnected work packages, as follows:WP1: design of new algorithms for national KEPs, using advanced integer programming techniques.WP2: design of国际KEP的新算法，使用合作游戏理论中的技术。Wp3：软件实施和实验评估，其中包括为UKLKSS构建新软件，实现了该项目的影响。