The com­plex pro­cess of fin­ding a sui­ta­ble donor for a cri­ti­cal­ly ill pati­ent. This is mana­ged main­ly by sen­ding out num­e­rous, most­ly auto­ma­ted queries to data­ba­ses and sub­se­quent­ly orga­ni­zing more spe­ci­fic fol­low-up tests on eli­gi­ble donors. Health insu­rance funds cover all the cos­ts of a donor search. A donor search is not the same as donor recruitment.