Istituto Superiore di Sanità

National Italian Transplant Centre

The mission of the Centre is to organise and manage the activities of organ donation, procurement and transplants throughout Italy.

The Centre was established in 1999 to promote, coordinate and orientate donation and transplant activity of organs and tissues in Italy. It is a technical body of the Ministry of Health, it is chaired by the President of the Italian National Institute of Health and comprises the Director-General and representantives of inter-regional and regional reference centres for transplants.

The Centre coordinates the management of waiting lists, fixes criteria and shared procedures for organ allocation, especially for urgencies, quantifies national demand, writes down protocols and guidelines for the activity of regional and inter-regional centres, singles out parameters for assessment of quality and outcomes at transplant facilities. In addition, the Centre manages a toll-free line that delivers information on transplants to citizens and the Transplant Information System; it cooperates with the Ministry of Health for information campaigns and with the National Institute of Health for research activities. The Centre is supported by the Permanent Technical Advisory Council for Transplants, which is responsible for issuing technical and operational addresses for the procurement and transplantation of organs.