About the Authors

Harald Schrem

Contributed equally to this work with: Harald Schrem, Valentin Schneider

schrem.harald@mh-hannover.de

Affiliations General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany, Core Facility Quality Management & Health Technology Assessment in Transplantation, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx), Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Valentin Schneider

Contributed equally to this work with: Harald Schrem, Valentin Schneider

Affiliation Core Facility Quality Management & Health Technology Assessment in Transplantation, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx), Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Marlene Kurok

Affiliations Core Facility Quality Management & Health Technology Assessment in Transplantation, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx), Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany, Gynecology and Obstetrics, KRH Klinikum Nordstadt, Hannover, Germany

Alon Goldis

Affiliations Core Facility Quality Management & Health Technology Assessment in Transplantation, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx), Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Amstelveen, The Netherlands

Maren Dreier

Affiliation Institute of Epidemiology, Social Medicine and Health Systems Research, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Alexander Kaltenborn

Affiliations Core Facility Quality Management & Health Technology Assessment in Transplantation, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx), Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany, Trauma and Orthopedic Surgery, Federal Armed Forces Hospital Westerstede, Medical Service of the Federal Armed Forces, Westerstede, Germany

Wilfried Gwinner

Affiliation Nephrology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Marc Barthold

Affiliation Core Facility Quality Management & Health Technology Assessment in Transplantation, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx), Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Jan Liebeneiner

Affiliation Core Facility Quality Management & Health Technology Assessment in Transplantation, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx), Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Markus Winny

Affiliation General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Jürgen Klempnauer

Affiliation General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Moritz Kleine

Affiliations General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany, Core Facility Quality Management & Health Technology Assessment in Transplantation, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx), Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors of this manuscript have no competing interest to disclose. Author AG contributed his work in the context of a consultancy agreement on quality management methodology financed within the framework of the grant agreement between authors HS and MB and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (reference number: 01EO1302). This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. Patents, products in development, or marketed products do not play any role in this study.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HS VS M. Kleine. Performed the experiments: VS M. Kurok AK. Analyzed the data: HS VS M. Kurok AG MD AK WG MB JL MW JK M. Kleine. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: M. Kurok AG MD. Wrote the paper: HS VS.