By Matt Copithorne, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Americas and Pacific Rim
When Organ Recovery Systems was founded in late 1998, our goal was clear: to support transplant professionals in their mission to improve outcomes for their patients while honoring the donor’s gift. From the very beginning, patients have been at the heart of every innovation, guiding more than 20 years of progress to improve outcomes and give people a second chance at life.
From Innovation to Impact
In 2003, the LifePort® Kidney Transporter received FDA clearance and quickly became the world’s leading kidney preservation device. Today, more than 275,000 kidneys have been safely preserved and transported using LifePort technology. The team at ORS created a fully portable device that allowed the user to easily and seamlessly integrate the LifePort into their system. By harnessing the power of hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP), LifePort has demonstrated clear benefits over static cold storage. This has allowed the use of kidneys from medically complex donors and reduced ischemic damage. These advancements have helped increase the number of kidneys available for transplant and the likelihood of successful outcomes.
Despite this progress, the challenge remains sobering: as of August 2025, according to the Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network, more than 92,000 people in the U.S. are still waiting for a kidney transplant. Each one represents a life in limbo and a reminder of why ORS continues to innovate and anticipate the needs of the transplant community.
Evolving to Meet the Field’s Needs
Over the years, we’ve evolved from providing a single device to delivering a complete preservation ecosystem. This includes sterile disposables designed for safe and efficient use, the industry’s leading 24/7 technical support and training network, and most recently, the integration of real-time digital monitoring into the LifePort Kidney Transporter.
This latest enhancement, combining location, condition, and chain-of-custody into a single bundled solution, was developed in direct response to feedback from our user community. We incorporated these evolutions into our current LifePort platform to respect existing budgets and capital schedules, enabling users to easily transition to new features within the same LifePort Kidney Transporter they already rely on and know well.
Our longevity in the field comes from recognizing that challenges are not barriers, but opportunities to contribute expertise and solutions. By proactively supporting LifePort users with useful tools, ORS directly impacts the success of our customers and, most importantly, increases the availability of life-saving organs for patients. Every advancement we make is driven by one purpose: to help more patients receive the transplant they are waiting for and the second chance at life they deserve. None of this would be possible without the selfless generosity of organ donors and their families. We extend our deepest gratitude to them for making these life-saving moments possible.
