Artificial Intelligence in Modern Transplantation

Exploring the Role of AI in Modern Transplant Education, Research, and Clinical Practice

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the world at an extraordinary pace, driving innovation across nearly every sector, including healthcare. Its potential to reshape clinical practice through data-driven decision making and automation presents new frontiers—none more promising, or more complex, than the field of organ transplantation.

Since the first successful kidney transplant in 1954, organ transplantation has evolved into a sophisticated, life-saving medical discipline. Yet, challenges remain: organ scarcity, suboptimal donor–recipient matching, preservation limitations, and the intricacies of post-transplant care. At the same time, AI has emerged as a powerful tool capable of addressing these challenges through advanced analytics, predictive modelling, real-time monitoring, and personalised medicine.

This Special Issue invites submissions that explore the intersection of AI and transplantation across education and training, research, and clinical practice. We are particularly interested in how AI technologies—from machine learning and deep learning to natural language processing and predictive algorithms—can achieve the following:

• Enhance donor–recipient matching by incorporating a broader and more dynamic range of clinical, immunological, and logistical parameters;
• Optimise organ perfusion and preservation by enabling real-time biomarker tracking and automated machine adjustments;
• Predict transplant outcomes and rejection risks using large-scale, multimodal data analysis;
• Support clinical decision making while maintaining the irreplaceable role of human judgement;
• Improve medical education and surgical training through simulation, personalised feedback, and automated assessment tools;
• Foster collaboration across disciplines by building frameworks for data sharing, transparency, and reproducibility.

A Responsible Revolution

As we embrace these innovations, we must also confront critical challenges. AI should serve as an assistant—not a substitute—for human expertise. Ethical concerns surrounding patient autonomy, data bias, algorithmic transparency, and data security must be addressed with urgency and integrity. Furthermore, clear regulatory pathways and legal safeguards must be developed to govern the safe, effective, and equitable use of AI in clinical settings.

Join the Conversation

This Special Issue aims to be a platform for collaboration and dialogue. We welcome contributions from clinicians, researchers, data scientists, ethicists, engineers, educators, and regulatory experts. Whether you are advancing new methodologies, sharing implementation experiences, or examining ethical implications, your voice is essential to shaping the future of transplantation.

Together, we will explore what has been achieved, what is currently underway, and what lies ahead as we integrate artificial intelligence into one of the most complex and human-centred fields of medicine.

Prof. Dr. Vassilios Papalois
Prof. Dr. Georgios Tsoulfas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Transplantology is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• artificial intelligence
• organ transplantation
• machine learning
• organ perfusion
• predictive analytics
• ethics
• education
• regulatory frameworks
• clinical decision support