OPTIMIZING THE ORGAN TRANSPORTATION FOR TRANSPLANT IN BRAZIL BY COMMERCIAL DOMESTIC FLIGHTS

This paper presents a mathematical model to select the best flights to transport organs for transplant by air mode using commercial flights. The objective is to minimize the time necessary for transportation where the organ leaves its origin to reach a destination given a set of commercial flights. Then, given the origin and destination of the organ, the solution of the mathematical model shows the best flights to be taken, respecting important constraints such as the cold ischemia time, considering transportation of one organ at a time. This problem is important for countries which need to improve their transportation systems. In Brazil, for example, despite more than 99% of organ transports involving different states be performed by air, logistics problems are responsible for non-execution of 5% to 10% of organ donations in the country. Brazilian real cases with 32 airports and 1,855 commercial flights are considered and the results show that our model provides better solutions than the practical ones used. In Brazil and other countries there are not structured models that allow the use of the commercial network of domestic flights to transport organs. The model helps in the decision-making process and minimizes failures in the logistics of organs.