MIT Study Reveals Racial Disparities in Organ Transplant Decisions

Key Findings from the Study

In a new study conducted by researchers at MIT and Mass General Hospital, computational models were used to analyze data from over 160,000 transplant candidates from 2010 to 2020. ^[1]

Race significantly influences the likelihood of an organ offer being accepted for a patient, especially during the final stage of the transplant decision-making process.

The study focused on this crucial point in the organ allocation process, when doctors decide whether to accept or reject an organ offer. They found that for liver organ offers, Black patients had a 7% lower odds of getting accepted, while for lungs, Black patients had a 20% lower odds.

The Role of Implicit Bias

The researchers do not claim that racial bias is the only or main reason for these differences.

The study suggests that certain clinical problems or risk factors that are more prevalent in Individuals from the Black racial/ethnic group and not fully accounted for in existing models may influence doctors' judgments without their awareness.

“Even if the process appears neutral, the outcomes may still disadvantage specific groups,” Hammad Adam explained. ^[2] “This highlights the need to build models and systems that better reflect patient realities.”

Systemic Concerns: Beyond Individual Decisions

The study also found another disturbing trend: organ offers were more likely to be accepted when the donor and patient were of the same race.

This pattern raises concerns about unconscious bias and systemic trust issues, possibly stemming from historical inequities in healthcare access and organ procurement. It also may suggest a preference for perceived immunological matching, though this is not always supported by clinical necessity.

A typical example is that of a study published in JAMA on the differences in donor heart acceptance by race and gender of patients on the transplant waiting list in the U.S. ^[3]

In their study, it was noted that even within the same gender group, Black candidates had consistently lower acceptance rates for donor hearts than White candidates.

Urgency in Organ Allocation Reform

Organs for transplant are very scarce. Every nine minutes, a new patient is added to the waitlist in the U.S. However, seventeen people die every day waiting for these organs.

Although surgeons, ethicists, and policymakers have been working since 1954, when the first transplant was successful, to ensure that organs are distributed in a fair and need-based manner, more work still needs to be done to ensure rigor and fairness.

The study by MIT and Mass General researchers highlights this need, as it was noted that physician-related organ offer rejection documented the highest mortality rates in patients.

References:

1. Adam, Hammaad, David Sontag, and Peter G. Stock. “Understanding Equity in Organ Offer Acceptance Decisions.” ACM Conference on Health, Inference, and Learning (CHIL), 2025. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3715275.3732097

2. “MIT-MGH Researchers Find Disparities in Organ Allocation.” MIT News, July 3, 2025. https://news.mit.edu/2025/mit-mgh-researchers-find-disparities-organ-allocation-0703

3. Killian, James M., et al. “Association of Patient Race and Sex With Differences in Donor Heart Acceptance in the US.” JAMA, vol. 331, no. 14, 2024, pp. 1260–1269. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2816670

(Rh/Swabirah Sulaiman/MSM/SE)