WHEREAS, the United Network for Organ Sharing, the mission-driven nonprofit organization that manages the nation's organ donation and transplantation network, celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2024; and

WHEREAS, established in Richmond in 1984, the United Network for Organ Sharing, more commonly known as UNOS, leads the network of transplant hospitals, organ procurement organizations, and thousands of volunteers who are dedicated to honoring the gifts of life and to making lifesaving transplants possible for patients in need; and

WHEREAS, UNOS was formed from the South-Eastern Organ Procurement Foundation, which Virginia Commonwealth University–Medical College of Virginia transplant surgeons helped create to develop the first computer-based organ matching system, called the United Network for Organ Sharing; and

WHEREAS, the United Network for Organ Sharing system was developed to address the problem that many organs were not being transplanted because transplant teams could not find a compatible recipient while the organ was still viable; and

WHEREAS, UNOS, named after that revolutionary technology, has helped facilitate more than one million organ transplants in the United States since the launch of the first matching system; and

WHEREAS, in 2023, more than 46,000 transplants, including 1,300 in the Commonwealth, were performed, twice the number of transplants that were performed 25 years ago; and

WHEREAS, UNOS is involved in many aspects of the organ donation and transplant process by managing the national transplant waiting list and the database containing information on every organ transplant performed in the United States; and

WHEREAS, UNOS matches donors to recipients 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and monitors those matches to ensure allocation policies are followed; and

WHEREAS, UNOS also educates transplant professionals about their important roles in the donation and transplantation process and supports patients, families, and caregivers through that process; and

WHEREAS, with more than 490 employees, UNOS has continued to grow and establish new technologies, organ allocation policies, and initiatives to help transform the nation's organ donation and transplant system and to ensure patients across the nation have equitable access to transplants; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend the United Network for Organ Sharing on the occasion of its 40th anniversary; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the United Network for Organ Sharing as an expression of the General Assembly's admiration for the organization's contributions to the Commonwealth and the nation.