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| Official law notice stating only family can donate. Illegal kidneys often bought to substitute when there's no match between relatives. |
The field of kidney transplants and
donation consists of multiple players such as organ donors, patients,
transplant service/care providers (surgeons, hospitals and other caregivers),
and medical tourism companies. Inter-actor social networks are inherent in
organ transplantation since the system tends to operate and expand through
social connections. There currently exists a limited number of network analyses on kidney transplantation and donation processes. Although there have been multiple
case studies on organ donation, from our knowledge, the application of a social
network analysis has not been explored
or published, creating a gap and great necessity for it in the field’s
literature (Declaration of Istanbul).
These reasons, along with my desire to apply mathematics and statistics to
improve my ancestral land of Bangladesh (a hub of kidney disease), are what got
me interested in the project.
This past Fall semester, I spent time in
Bangladesh conducting preliminary field work and research to obtain data for
the mathematical model we hope to establish this semester. My main objective,
was to create a network model, of how a illicit kidney sale occurs, and all the
“who/what/where/when” involved. Now, on a weekly basis, I’ve been consolidating
my data from the Fall and preparing it for the small-scale database that will
turn into a larger agent-based model. One thing I discovered from this research
this term is the significance impact medical policy has upon the common
person’s livelihood. Socioeconomic status and wealth often determine if someone
will be able to get a new kidney or not, or if their body will function
properly after that. I see this project being related to my long-term goals as
I hope to conduct data-oriented health research, and building off my focus in
the Fall, I hope to implement these techniques to focus on the health and
wellness of people all across the world.
