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Heart donors with COVID-19 found to confer higher mortality risk to those receiving new hearts

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By Bob Yirka
A team of medical researchers from Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York has found that mortality rates are higher for transplant patients receiving a new heart from a person infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus than from those not infected. In their study, reported in Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the group analyzed data in the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) database related to COVID-19. Read more in Medical Xpress.

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

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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.

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Simplifying Diagnosis of Rejection After Kidney Transplant

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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.

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Prairie Doc Perspective: The Gift Of Kidney Donation

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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.

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

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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.

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Resiliency Starts With High-Reliability Healthcare Systems

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— 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.

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