In The News – Allocare

August 28, 2023August 28, 2023

Join the fight for continued access to non-invasive testing!

What is going on?

Medicare coverage for post-transplant tests, such as CareDx’s AlloMap and AlloSure, is being reviewed. The transplant community now has the opportunity to share comments and letters on the importance of these tests and how restricting access to these tests could negatively impact patients and their post-transplant health.

Why does this matter to you?

AlloMap and AlloSure help detect issues, such as rejection, with transplants earlier than traditional testing, while also helping patients avoid invasive procedures like biopsies. These tests have been trusted by the transplant community for over 15 years for heart transplant recipients, over 5 years in kidney transplant recipients, and over 2 years in lung transplant recipients.

New proposed coverage for these tests is more restrictive. If these new restrictions are put in place, it could limit access to these important tests. This could prevent your care team from being able to order these blood tests to check on how your transplant is doing when they think it is needed.

How can you help?

The patient voice is powerful and deserves to be heard on this important issue! From now until September 23, 2023, you can send a comment or letter to the groups making these decisions, voicing your perspective on the importance of these tests and need for continued access.

While doing so in your own words is best, we have created the below prompts to help. To start your letter, select at least one of the prompts below that feels best for you and answer it in your own words. Be sure to include what kind of transplant you have had, a little bit about your own transplant story, and how non-invasive tests like AlloSure or AlloMap have impacted your post-transplant care.

Click here to learn more and start your letter!

January 19, 2022January 19, 2022

First successful pig-to-human heart transplant may offer new options for patients

A team of surgeons from the University of Maryland School of Medicine recently transplanted a genetically-modified pig heart into a 57-year-old male from Baltimore, MD.
The patient, who had arrhythmia, was not a viable candidate for the heart transplant list or an artificial heart pump.
The pig heart had 10 genetic modifications, including the removal of four pig genes and the addition of six human genes.
The surgical team hopes the continued success of this transplant will provide a new way to help those on the organ donor list.
However, some in the medical community question the ethical considerations of this type of transplant

Naperville Couple: Life After Husband & Wife Match for Kidney Transplant

“It’s the story of two people who are a match in a perfect and unexpected way. In July 2019, Naperville resident Aaron Rhoden suffered a stroke due to his high blood pressure. Afterwards, his kidney functionality was so low that he needed a transplant. That’s when an “unusual alignment” happened according to his doctor.

His wife, Tonya Rhoden, didn’t hesitate to take the tests necessary and the two found out they were a perfect match. The couple, married since 2016, said one in every between 50,000 and 100,000 spouses will be a match. The two are “six out of 10 markers identical,” said Aaron in a story we did with the two back in April before the kidney transplant.”

Read full story here.

November 9, 2021November 9, 2021

She Died With Long Covid. Should Her Organs Have Been Donated?

“Covid-19 ravaged Heidi Ferrer’s body and soul for over a year, and in May the “Dawson’s Creek” screenwriter killed herself in Los Angeles. She had lost all hope.

“I’m so sorry,” she said in a goodbye video to her husband and son. “I would never do this if I was well. Please understand. Please forgive me.”

Her husband, Nick Guthe, a writer and director, wanted to donate her body to science. But the hospital said it was not his decision to make because Ms. Ferrer, 50, had signed up to be an organ donor. So specialists recovered several organs from the body before disconnecting her from a ventilator.”

Read full story, here.

November 1, 2021October 29, 2021

How Technology is Transforming Organ Procurement

“Every year, more than 100,000 people in the United States wait for an organ donation. More than a dozen people will die each day still waiting. Such is the brutal math and the necessary optimism required to work in the organ procurement world.

For the past several decades, a private network of now 57 organ procurement organizations (OPOs) have sprouted up, all broadly affiliated with UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing, a nonprofit which matches donated organs with potential recipients under contract with the federal government.”

Learn more here.

October 28, 2021October 23, 2021

How a drone saved this Canadian patient’slife, who was waiting for a lung transplant

It took less than 10 minutes for a drone to make an emergency 1.2 kilometer trip to deliver a set of lungs needed for a life-saving transplant.

This world-first took place at the end of September, in Toronto, Canada, AFP reported.

The drone flew over the skies of the Canadian metropolis in the middle of the night, taking off from the UHN’s Toronto Western Hospital and landing on the roof of the General Hospital.

The operation was made possible due to a refrigerated container in light carbon fibre which maintains the thermal parameters of the organ so that it is viable for transplantation.

Read full story here.

October 28, 2021October 23, 2021

FDA Greenlights ‘Mix and Match’ COVID Boosters

“The FDA authorized booster doses of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccines and also authorized a “mix and match” or heterologous approach to boosters for all three available vaccines (including Pfizer’s) in the indicated populations, the agency announced on Wednesday.

Ultimately, the FDA went with what was recommended by their advisory panel, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), which voted for a half-dose Moderna booster in adults ages 65 and up, adults ages 18-64 at high risk of severe COVID, and adults 18-64 with frequent occupational and institutional exposure to SARS-CoV-2, at least 6 months after completing the primary series.”

Learn more here.

October 27, 2021October 23, 2021

How Genetically Altered Pigs Could Help Kidney Transplantation

“Just a year or two from now, patients waiting for a human kidney may be able to participate in a trial for a pig kidney, if a short-term experiment at NYU Langone Health in New York City paves the way for trials in patients with end-stage kidney failure.

The successful result was released October 19 and this experiment is the first of its kind. “

Bay Area research team wins prize for working prototype of artificial kidney

“A Bay Area research team is being awarded a major prize for a device they hope will someday free kidney patients from dialysis.

For thousands of kidney patients in the U.S., the only practical hope of getting off dialysis has been waiting for a transplant. But now, a new engineering breakthrough is reigniting hopes for a second option… an implantable artificial kidney.”

Read full story here.

October 25, 2021October 23, 2021

Outbreak Investigation of Salmonella Oranienburg: Whole, Fresh Onions (October 2021)

“The FDA, along with CDC and state and local partners, is investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Oranienburg infections linked to whole, fresh onions. FDA’s traceback investigation is ongoing but has identified ProSource Produce, LLC (also known as ProSource Inc.) of Hailey, Idaho, and Keeler Family Farms of Deming, New Mexico, as suppliers of potentially contaminated whole, fresh onions imported from the State of Chihuahua, Mexico.”