The United Network for Organ Sharing

The United Network for Organ Sharing (www.unos.org) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1984 to meet the growing demand for transplants nationwide. With a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (www.organdonor.gov), it coordinates the nation's organ donation and placement process.

UNOS seeks to help shape organ-sharing policy, provide physician and surgeon training, maintain the national organ-transplant waiting list and increase public awareness of the critical need for donation.

The network encompasses every transplant hospital, tissue matching laboratory and organ-procurement organization in the United States, as well as volunteer health and professional societies, ethicists, and patient and donor advocates.

It maintains a computer network linking all procurement organizations with transplant centers.