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More lungs are being transplanted from UW Hospital organ donors, but the rate for hearts is down, according to the latest public data.

The mixed picture comes as administrators are trying to improve both programs, which continue to have transplanted organ rates below the national average.

Survival rates for patients who receive transplants in Madison, however, remain high.

In February, the Wisconsin State Journal examined the lung program.

Far fewer lungs were taken from organ donors at UW Hospital and transplanted into patients there or sent elsewhere in 2006 than at most transplant centers, the paper reported. That means patients who could have received lung transplants didn't, doctors in Minnesota and Illinois said.

New data released this month by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients show that in 2007, lungs from UW Hospital organ donors were used in transplants 19 percent of the time. That's up from 9 percent from the year before but still below the national average of 31 percent.

The same rate for hearts, which was 16 percent in 2006, fell to 12 percent last year, when the national average was 28 percent.

The figures reflect two dynamics: how often lungs or hearts are recovered from donors of any organ, and how often the recovered organs are used in transplants in Madison or elsewhere.

Part of the issue with lungs in 2006 was that six of the 17 lungs taken from donors at UW Hospital were discarded, deemed unfit to be transplanted. Most were used in research. Doctors in other states said steps could be taken to better prepare donors for organ recovery.

In 2007, two of 26 lungs recovered were discarded, the new data show.

Sara O'Loughlin, the hospital's administrative director of transplant services, said last week there's room for improvement in the hospital's recovery and use of organs.

"I would like to see us get back up to the national average," she said. "That is our goal. "

Survival rates remain high. In 2007, about 90 percent of lung recipients and 88 percent of heart recipients were alive a year after their transplants. That's better than expected given the severity of their illnesses, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

Meanwhile, the number of heart transplants being performed at UW Hospital, using organs from donors here or elsewhere, appears to be down.

The hospital performed six heart transplants during the first half of this year, O'Loughlin said. Seventeen were done last year, 16 the year before and 26 in each of the previous two years.

O'Loughlin said UW Hospital, which has a relatively short waiting list for hearts, must send many of the organs it recovers to transplant centers that have long waiting lists because the organs are more likely to match patients at those centers.

Also, she said, cardiologists are increasingly treating heart disease with procedures other than transplants.

"We haven't seen as many referrals," she said.

Hospital staff are reviewing each case in which a lung or heart wasn't recovered from an organ donor to determine why, O'Loughlin said. A task force has been taking steps to improve the output of useful lungs, and a similar effort is beginning for hearts, she said.

One step that doctors elsewhere say could improve transplanted organ rates has begun at UW Hospital on a small scale.

Organ recovery coordinators, who usually are nurses, can be trained to perform procedures on organ donor candidates that can improve the number and quality of organs recovered, say some doctors, including Dr. Cynthia Herrington of the University of Minnesota.

The procedures -- such as a bronchoscopy for lungs, in which a tube is inserted through the nose into the lungs to check for problems -- are called "advanced practice " techniques.

UW Hospital hired an organ recovery coordinator this year who had been trained in the techniques, and the hospital may consider giving more of its coordinators such training, O'Loughlin said.

"We're waiting to see how this position evolves," she said.