Thanks to this system, developed by OESIA, coordinators for transplants can send and receive in real time written data about a donor by mobile phone. This data is kept in a computer program.

The Spanish Minister for Health and Social Policy, Trinidad Jiménez, has presented the CARLA project: a new communications system for professionals involved in the process of organ donations and transplants. This system is a joint project of the National Transplants Organization (ONT), part of the Ministry of Health and Social Policy, and the Vodafone Foundation, and was developed by OESIA, a company specializing in technology applications.

“It is a significant qualitative leap forward in the way ONT works. Spain is a global leader in transplants, both in terms of the number of donors and its transplant activities. But in order to maintain this leadership, our organizational model must have state-of-the-art technology”, assured Jiménez.

CARLA collects information from the central system of the National Transplants Organization (ONT) and, by mobile phone, distributes this data among all of the professionals that are involved in the process. In this manner, the coordinators for transplants can send and receive, by mobile phone and in real time, written data about a donor, that is also stored on a computer program.

Among the applications already available through CARLA are the following:

· Sending in real time all the data necessary for evaluating the donor, and the suitability of the organs. This data is kept in a computer program.

· Verifying the donor’s blood type, one of the key elements in transplants.

· Facilitating the search for an adequate recipient, for each available organ.

· Improving the logistics and everything related to mobilizing the organ extraction teams.

· It will also include the possibility of showing a summary of all information and statistical data. Coordinators can see this information on the screen of their mobile phone, which will allow them to easily know the activities that are being carried out and share this with other ONT professionals.

The first phase of this system has already been introduced in the central headquarters of the ONT and in regional transplant coordination centers. It will be installed for the remaining hospital coordinators at the end of this year. All that’s necessary in order to do so is a mobile phone with an application to receive e-mail.

The ONT expects to implement the second phase of the system, which will incorporate applications related with logistics and the development of statistical data, in the first quarter of 2011.