Farewell, my kidney: Why the body may reject a lifesaving organ

Loading

By Gabriel Spitzer, Emily Kwong, Rebecca Ramirez, Liz Metzger

In February 2021, pandemic restrictions were just starting to ease in Hawaii, and Leila Mirhaydari was finally able to see her kidney doctor. This was a huge relief after being unable to get in-person health care for so long. But Leila was also anxious: Transplanted organs need diligent care, and Leila had been looking after her donated kidney all on her own for a year. So a lot was riding on that first batch of lab results. Read or listen the to the full story on NPR.

Loading

Simplifying Diagnosis of Rejection After Kidney Transplant

Loading

By Nancy A. Melville

An automated system for the diagnosis of rejection after kidney transplant simplifies the assessment of increasingly complex criteria, significantly reducing the common occurrence of misclassification and potentially improving outcomes, according to new research.

“To date, no study in transplantation and other medical fields has developed and validated an automated multimodal disease classification,” report the French authors in their article published online May 4 in Nature Medicine.
Read more in Medscape.

Loading

Prairie Doc Perspective: The Gift Of Kidney Donation

Loading

By Jill Cruse, DO
The first successful organ transplant was a kidney transplant in 1954. The donor was the identical twin of the recipient. The new kidney worked for 11 months. This was long before any anti-rejection medications were available. Cyclosporine, the first anti-rejection medication, was approved for use in 1983. The use of anti-rejection medications has significantly increased how long transplanted organs will function.

A transplanted kidney from a living donor will last on average 12-20 years. A kidney from a decease donor lasts 8-12 years on average. Read more in the Alliance Times-Herald.

Loading

Examining the Impact of Donor, Recipient Characteristics on Lung Transplant Mortality

Loading

By Giuliana Grossi

Results show race and ethnicity were significant factors in posttransplant outcomes highlighting the need for a multifaceted approach to addressing disparities in organ transplant outcomes.

A recent study found that there are significant differences in organ transplant outcomes based on race and ethnicity, while socioeconomic status and region weren’t contributors to most of the observed differences in posttransplant outcomes.1
Read the full story in HCP Live.

Loading

Resiliency Starts With High-Reliability Healthcare Systems

Loading

— Individual team member resilience will follow

By Tejal Gandhi, MD, MPH 
Organizations and broader society often emphasize individual resilience in the workplace. We saw this on display among healthcare workforces throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as individuals on the front lines were celebrated for their resilience. While their hard work deserved every bit of the recognition it received, it contributed to professional burnout. Last year, leaders from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the CDC identified an urgent need for resilient healthcare systems and emphasized how companies can devote attention to resilience as an organization rather than focusing solely on individual resilience, albeit equally important.
Read the full article in MedPage Today.

Loading

Cognitive behavioral therapy-based intervention reduces diabetes distress for adults

Loading

By Michael Monostra
A cognitive behavioral therapy multidisciplinary intervention was associated with a reduction in HbA1c and improvements in diabetes distress for adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, according to study findings.

In a study published in The Science of Diabetes Self-Management and Care, researchers enrolled 29 adults with diabetes into the Diabetes Tune-Up Group, a multidisciplinary group intervention designed to deliver integrated psychoeducational, cognitive, motivational and emotional interventions in a scalable manner across six sessions. 
Read the full article in Healio.

Loading