Transplant – Page 5

May 5, 2023May 5, 2023

Understanding and Fixing Inequities in Palliative Care and Organ Transplant

By Angela Spivey
The Dean’s Distinguished Research Series concluded on April 20 with lectures from Kimberly Johnson, MD, professor of medicine and a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, and Lisa McElroy, MD, MS, assistant professor of surgery and population health sciences, and the Inaugural Onyekwere E. Akwari Endowed Professor in Surgery.

The two researchers discussed their work to understand health disparities and develop health system innovations to reduce them. Johnson studies these issues in end-of-life care, and McElroy in organ transplant. Read more from Duke University School of Medicine.

May 3, 2023May 3, 2023

Reforming the country’s organ transplant system

17 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant.

And there’s one non-profit monopoly that influences the lives and deaths of thousands.

It’s the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS, the single organization that runs America’s organ transplant system.
Read more in NPR News.

May 2, 2023May 2, 2023

Improving Transplant Equity by Bioengineering Organs for Transplants

Could bioengineering organs for human organ transplants improve transplant equity and address the ongoing organ shortage?

May 01, 2023 – In a recent press release, CareDx Inc., based in Brisbane, CA, and Miromatrix Medical Inc., based in Eden Prairie, MN, announced a collaboration focused on researching bioengineered organs for human organ transplants. Tissue and organ bioengineering has been conceptualized for years, with many implications in improving transplant equity and addressing the shortage of organ donors. As researchers take steps closer to whole organ transplantation in humans, it is critical to understand the science behind bioengineering and how to minimize patient risk. Read more in Life Sciences Intelligence.

April 30, 2023April 25, 2023

Who deserves a liver transplant?

With deaths from alcohol-related disease on rise, some in the field are rethinking criteria that exclude patients from life-saving care

By Samantha Laine Perfas

During one of his first rotations as a medical student, John Messinger had a patient in his 40s with alcohol-related hepatitis. Because the patient had been treated for alcohol use disorder and relapsed, he was ineligible for a liver transplant. Messinger watched the patient deteriorate, knowing more could have been done to save his life. Read the full story in The Harvard Gazette.

April 28, 2023April 25, 2023

3 ways to save more lives with organ transplants: Mayo Clinic

By Ashleigh Hollowell

Seventeen people die per day awaiting organ transplants and top health systems and hospitals like Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic continue to seek ways to improve outcomes for the 104,000 patients on organ transplant waiting lists in the U.S.

Even though 2022 was the 12th consecutive year on record for deceased organ donations, one of the persistent challenges is the lack of viable donated organs, according to an April 5 news release from Mayo Clinic. However, experts say medical advances are working to solve challenges like this — one of which includes expanding the pool of transplant donations.
Read more in Becker’s Hospital Review.

April 26, 2023April 25, 2023

CareDx, Miromatrix partner to study use of bioengineered organs for human transplantation

By Julie S. Keenan

CareDx Inc. has partnered with Miromatrix Medical Inc. to address the organ supply shortage and improve transplantation outcomes by researching the use of bioengineered organs in humans, according to the press release.

“Increasing the life of the graft and increasing the quality of life of transplant recipients is CareDx’s goal, and one of the ways that we saw several years ago to do that was through partial investment in Miromatrix,” Robert Woodward, PhD, senior vice president of research and development for CareDx, told Healio.
Read the full story in Healio.

April 21, 2023April 21, 2023

Stanford Medicine surgeons perform first beating-heart transplants from cardiac death donors

Surgeons at Stanford Medicine believe the new technique, which has now been performed on six patients, will improve health outcomes for recipients and boost the pool of available organs.

By Roxanna Van Norman
Using an organ from a donor who underwent cardiac death, Stanford Medicine surgeons transplanted a heart while it was beating — the first time such a procedure has been achieved.

Initially performed by Joseph Woo, MD, professor and chair of cardiothoracic surgery, and his team in October, the technique has since been used in adult and pediatric patients five more times by surgeons at Stanford Medicine. Read more from Stanford Medicine News Center.

April 15, 2023April 12, 2023

Monopoly Be Gone: A New Chapter in U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation

— A recent announcement from HHS has the power to transform our deeply flawed system

by Greg Segal, Jennifer Erickson, MS, Donna Cryer, JD, and Bryan Sivak

The U.S. government recently made a transformative announcement: it is breaking up the flawed monopoly that manages the current organ procurement system, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).

This commonsense reform marks an unequivocal win for patients, and has been heralded by patient groupsopens in a new tab or window, equity leadersopens in a new tab or window, and bipartisanopens in a new tab or window Congressional officesopens in a new tab or window alike. Read the full story in MedPage Today.

April 11, 2023April 11, 2023

Physician describes three advances leading to more lifesaving organ transplants

By Heather Carlson Kehren, Mayo Clinic
All too often, people waiting for lifesaving organ transplants cannot get them. One of the biggest challenges is the lack of viable donated organs. Promising medical advances are opening the doors to more transplants and saving more lives, says Mauricio Villavicencio, M.D., surgical director of heart and lung transplantation at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

There are 104,000 people on the waiting list in the U.S. for a transplant. An estimated 17 people die on the waiting list die every day, according to Donate Life America. Read more in Medical Xpress.

April 11, 2023April 11, 2023

Smaller liver transplant candidates wait up to 55 days longer than other recipients

By Kate Burba
Liver transplant candidates with a small stature experienced longer waitlist times and had lower rates of transplant, with the smallest 25% of candidates most affected, according to study results in JAMA Surgery.

“As a liver transplant surgeon, I had noticed that small candidates on the waitlist seem to wait longer to get a liver transplant, even if they are at the top of the list,” Catherine E. Kling, MD, MPH, assistant professor in the division of transplant surgery and program director for the Abdominal Transplant Surgery Fellowship at the University of Washington, told Healio.
Read more in Healio.