China's first human organ donation information platform will be launched in Shenzhen, a city in South China's Guangdong Province, in the first half of next year, the local Red Cross said.

"The platform is a communication agent for hospitals and the Red Cross," Zhao Lizhen, the secretary-general of Shenzhen Red Cross, told China Daily yesterday.

Hospitals will provide the Red Cross with the records of donors and patients. When the donors are ready for transplant operations, the Red Cross will pick patients strictly according to their orders, Zhao said.

The procedure ensures all patients have a fair opportunity to receive transplant operations, and potentially prevent some patients from jumping the queue by bribing doctors.

The Red Cross began work on the platform in February at a cost of 1.3 million yuan ($171,000) from the municipal government.

Zhao said the development of relevant software would be finished by the end of the year. The Red Cross has hired experts to assess every donor and patient.

The People's Congress of Shenzhen passed a regulation for human organ donations in 2003, ensuring an open and accountable legal process for human organ donations and transplants. Donors and recipients will never know each other's information.

Zhao said the platform is based on the regulation.

Even though the public can log into the website, the information about donors and receivers will be only open to relevant people from hospitals and the Red Cross.

Zhao said there are plans to increase the scope of the platform to connect with more hospitals and medical organizations of other provinces.

More than 4,000 people who would like to donate their corneas have registered, according to the Red Cross and 150 of them have been matched with recipients.

(China Daily October 23, 2007)