Caritas, 2220 Stockton St, Richmond, VA 23224, US

The United Network for Organ Sharing, also known as UNOS, is a private, nonprofit membership organization and an organ transplant system of the United States that provides vital services to meet the needs of men, women and children awaiting lifesaving organ transplants. Its members include transplant hospitals, tissue matching laboratories and organ procurement organizations in the United States, as well as voluntary health and professional societies, ethicists, transplant patients and organ donor advocates. The United Network for Organ Sharing s Web site, www.unos.org, launched in 1995, provides information on transplant data and news about UNOS and the process of organ donation and transplantation. The United Network for Organ Sharing was originated in 1977 as an initiative of the South-Eastern Organ Procurement Foundation, which was one of the first organizations to develop a computerized system to use medical information to match organ donors with transplant candidates in the United States. It also operates the UNOS Organ Center, which was established in 1982 as the Kidney Center.