Carrie Thiessen, MD, PhD

Carrie Thiessen, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Transplantation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research seeks to optimize outcomes for transplant patients and living donors by improving patient and provider decisions regarding risk. Dr. Thiessen’s research has been funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, professional societies, and foundations. She is a member of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network’s Membership & Professional Standards Committee and the national Allocation Out-of-Sequence Workgroup. In addition, Dr. Thiessen serves on the Ethics Committees for the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the Transplantation Society, as the co-chair of the American Society of Transplantation’s Psychosocial and Ethics Community of Practice, and an associate editor for the American Journal of Transplantation.

For more information, visit https://www.surgery.wisc.edu/staff/carrie-thiessen/

Ethical approaches to reforming deceased donor organ allocation in the United States

Grant Cycle: 2025 - 2026

Priority for receipt of deceased donor organ transplants in the United States is determined by national regulations that undergo extensive professional and public review to establish an acceptable balance of competing ethical considerations. Increasingly, this system is bypassed by a practice known as allocation out-of-sequence (AOOS). Dr. Thiessen will seek to integrate empirical, normative, and policy analyses to answer three questions about AOOS: (1) Why are so many organs placed for transplant via AOOS? (2) Are stakeholders that engage in AOOS behaving unethically? (3) How can we decrease the number of organs undergoing AOOS? This research aims to inform ongoing reforms to national transplant allocation policy.