
Top Stories 
Published On January 28, 2015
POLICY
Kidneys Wanted
A shortfall has repercussions in policy and an international black market.
101,000+
Number of people in the United States currently waiting for a kidney transplant. The average wait time for a kidney from a deceased donor is three to five years.
5–10
Percentage of transplanted kidneys worldwide that probably come from the black market, according to the World Health Organization. The illicit global organ market is estimated to be between $600 million and $1.2 billion.
2,000
Approximate number of kidneys sold and transplanted per year in Pakistan. Two-thirds are estimated to go to foreigners engaging in “transplant tourism.”
48
Percentage of American adults registered as organ donors. States vary widely: 84% of Montana residents are registered as organ donors, but only 18% of Vermont residents are.
13,000
Number of names added to New York State’s donor list in the year after it enacted Lauren’s Law. The law makes it mandatory for driver’s license applicants to answer whether or not they would like to be organ donors, rather than skipping the question and opting out by default.
8.9
Percentage by which the supply of available kidneys could rise if hospitals harvested optimal organs more frequently from patients declared to be in cardiac death (the irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions) as well as those in brain death (the irreversible cessation of brain activity). Brain death is the most common standard.
Dispatches

What Makes a Kid Clumsy? More research into coordination disorders shows why some children are more prone to trip, fumble and spill the milk.

Eyes in the Sky Satellite data can be used to assess the health impact of dust storms and the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. Additional applications could be on the horizon.

Could This One Change Help Curb the Opioid Crisis? To prescribe an effective bridge to addiction treatment, emergency physicians must get special training and receive a waiver. Making that process easier—or eliminating the requirement altogether—could make a big impact.

One Thing Leads to the Next Robert Lefkowitz is best known for revealing the mechanism behind hundreds of drugs in use today. But he thinks of himself as a storyteller first and has a new book out to make his case.

Podcast: The Research Year That Was Medical research labs have faced a difficult stretch of closed buildings and competing priorities. Yet they have also produced milestone discoveries—and not only on COVID-19.

The Shape of Us Two milestone discoveries in protein modeling promise to change the fundamentals of drug discovery.

Universal Flu Vaccines Move Forward In the shadow of coronavirus vaccine development, another vaccine was making solid progress.

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