In 1984, Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) authored by then Congressman Al Gore of Tennessee. This piece of legislation addressed the critical shortage of deceased donor organs in the United States as well as the need for improvements in the recovery and placement of these organs. The act called for the establishment of a national organ matching system as well as the establishment of a network of private, non-profit organizations under federal contract who would be in charge of regional recovery and placement of donor organs.

In 1987, an executive committee of high-level hospital administrators of the 4 major transplant centers in Northern California came together to develop an independent Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) in response to NOTA. The resulting structure became known as the California Transplant Donor Network. Phyllis Weber was appointed as Executive Director of the Transplant Network and in the first year recruited 15 employees whose functions were a combination of hospital education and donor management.

In the first few years, the Transplant Network focused much of its energy on educating donor hospital staff regarding the process of organ donation. After this donor referral process became routine, the Transplant Network extended its efforts towards public education and family services in a continuing effort to increase consent rates.

Today, the Transplant Network is proud to be a federally designated OPO, a Donate Life Organization, an accredited member of the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) and a member of the United Network of Organ Sharing. We are dedicated to providing services to hospitals, transplant centers and the public in Northern/Central California as well as Northern Nevada.