Health officials from Greece, Israel and Cyprus met in Miami on Thursday to discuss a plan to share transplant organs and overcome the challenge of having small populations and low donation rates.

An informal pooling of medical resources _ organs as well as specialist surgeons _ has existed among them for several years. But the Mediterranean nations are now looking to formalize the relationship, make it more efficient and consistent, and establish a Web-based donor registry to facilitate it, officials said.

«When people get really sick, they have to depend only on the donors of one country. There's really very little opportunity for them to get a transplant, whereas if they share donors for these very, very ill patients, then there's a realistic chance that they can save them,» said Dr. Andreas Tzakis, director of the Miami Transplant Institute at the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Miami philanthropist Abel Holtz is funding the cost of creating the registry _ which will bear his name _ and sponsored the meeting here. The process could take six months or longer to complete.

Such an agreement has precedents in Europe, among the Scandinavian countries and among a group of northern European nations.

«It's doable and I think the saving of life is independent of nationality, so cost is not a barrier,» Israeli transplant surgeon Dr. Eytan Mor said of the logistical considerations involved.

Under the agreement, the farthest an organ would have to travel is between Athens and Tel Aviv, a roughly 750-mile (1,205-kilometer) trek that is shorter than the stretch between New York and Chicago. Local patients will be at the top of the list for organs from their area, similar to the guiding principal of the U.S.-based United Network for Organ Sharing.

Dr. Efstathios Antoniou of Greece and Dr. George Kyriakides of Cyprus said they hoped the agreement would foster a better understanding about transplantation among everyday people, and open opportunities for collaboration among doctors in each of the countries.

A follow-up meeting has been scheduled for September in Israel. In the meantime, doctors plan to discuss the proposal with their countries' transplant societies and seek approval from their governments to proceed.

The health officials envision expanding the agreement to less-urgent transplant operations and other countries in the region.

But for now, Tzakis said, they will focus on perfecting a nascent system.