Jobs' liver transplant shows money can make a difference

— -- A celebrity like Apple CEO Steve Jobs scores a rare organ transplant and the world wonders: How? The rich have plenty of advantages that others don't. But winning the "transplant lottery" involves more than the size of your wallet — and true medical need.

A Tennessee hospital has confirmed that it performed a liver transplant for Jobs, putting him among the lucky 6,500 or so Americans each year who get these operations. Nearly 16,000 others are waiting now for such a chance.

No one can buy a transplant — that's against federal law. And no one is suggesting that Jobs or the Memphis doctors who treated him bent any rules to show him favor. The hospital said he was the sickest person waiting for a liver when one became available.

However, people who understand how the transplant system works, and who have the money to make the most of what they learn, have a leg up on getting the body part they need.

An Internet database — the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients — gives average wait times, success rates and other details on every transplant program in the nation.

"Anyone can go to that website and see which transplant centers transplant quicker than others," said Dr. Anthony D'Alessandro, liver transplant chief at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Jobs, who lives in Palo Alto, Calif., was able to get on a shorter waiting list, in Tennessee.

Here's where money comes in.

To get on a transplant center's list, a prospective patient must go there, be evaluated by the staff and have tests to confirm medical need. If accepted, the patient must be able to get to that center within seven or eight hours if an organ becomes available. That means renting or buying a place nearby or being able to afford a private jet, or $3,000 to $5,000 for a chartered plane, to fly in on short notice.

People also can get on as many wait lists as they like as long as they can travel there and meet the terms.