TTS EDUCATION COMMITTEE'S PRECISION MEDICINE WEBINAR SERIES - NEW RELEASE!

Today, we release the next webinar in the series. Dr. Philip Halloran presents on the Molecular Microscope and the unmet need for precision pathological diagnosis. This webinar is moderated by Dr. Jon Kobashigawa. Still available, last month's webinar presented by Maarten Naesens on System Biology and precision Transplantation Medicine. Log in and take advantage of writing questions to the moderators and presenters in your own time.

*Note, you must be logged in to participate.

AUGUST 21 - WEBINAR ANNOUNCEMENT

TITLE: FIRST VCA (UPPER EXTREMITY)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019 - 11:00 AM EDT (MONTREAL TIME)

Objectives:

This webinar will provide Participants with firsthand insight from the pioneers of the field on how the first-hand transplants came to be and their vision for the future.

The speakers will critique the reasoning for attempting UE transplants, enumerate the steps taken prior to the first clinical cases and describe how the original teams were assembled.

KDIGO HOLDS LANDMARK CONFERENCE ON KIDNEY NOMENCLATURE

(Brussels, Belgium) - Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) held a major conference on 27 – 29 June, in Amsterdam, to discuss improving patient-centeredness and precision of terms used by the global kidney community to describe kidney disease and kidney function in scientific articles, communicating with each other and speaking with patients.

The conference was led by Andrew Levey of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Kai-Uwe Eckardt of the Charité in Berlin, Nijsje Dorman, Managing Editor, American Journal of Kidney Diseases and Stacy Christiansen, Managing Editor of JAMA and chair of the AMA Manual of Style Committee. In attendance were editors and associate editors from major kidney journals as well as several general and specialty clinical journals along with distinguished scientists and authors.

Dr. Levey said, “Prior to the conference we conducted a survey and commissioned a series of patient focus groups. All were asked if we could be doing better. I am really pleased that patients and experts showed a willingness to discuss more effective language for describing some aspects of kidney disease and kidney function.”

According to Dr. Eckardt, “Conference attendees shared the view that nomenclature is important in a number of ways, including communication within the medical community and with patients, perception of disease and planning of research and disease management. We are confident therefore that uniform and precise language will facilitate strategies to improve patient care and outcomes.”

Nijsje Dorman, who conducted the participant survey, emphasized that implementing changes to nomenclature in medical journals will take effort by editors and authors to ensure clarity and maintain high standards for publication.

Conference attendees discussed in plenary sessions and breakout groups a glossary of terms to describe kidney function, kidney disease and therapeutic modalities and finally agreed on a list of preferred terms.

Stacy Christiansen stated that the current edition of the style manual did not include a section on kidney nomenclature but the updated edition, to be released later this year, would include the statement, “A global organization dedicated to developing and implementing evidence-based practice guidelines in kidney disease, KDIGO, is spearheading an international effort to revise the nomenclature and to describe kidney function and disease. Their effort will focus on making terminology more patient centered and more precise with a goal of greater uniformity in medical practice, research, and public health.”

Dr. Wolfgang Winkelmayer, KDIGO Co-Chair, said, “We are proud that KDIGO organized and hosted this conference and brought together such an important group of people. This reflects our commitment to the highest scientific rigor and patient centeredness in our products and real-world applications."

The conference leaders are currently working on a report to be published in a few months along with a glossary of terms for journal authors and editors. Editorials or commentaries may appear in several journals describing this new approach to nomenclature. It is hoped that the next edition of the AMA Manual of Style will include some of the conference insights.

KDIGO is a Belgian foundation committed to developing and implementing nephrology guidelines that improve patient outcomes on a global basis.

For further information please contact KDIGO at KDIGOcommunications@kdigo.org.

JUST RELEASED - TRANSPLANTATION DIRECT - AUGUST ISSUE

The August issue of Transplantation Direct covers a variety of topics of interest to the transplantation community. In kidney transplantation, issues are explored including steroid-free immunosuppression, the relationship of eGFR to using antihypertensive medication, pre- and post-transplant weakly-reactive DSA factors affecting outcomes, predictive models of hospital post-transplant readmission, and a case of hyperacute rejection due to donor-specific Kidd blood group antibodies. Also, graft outcomes are studied in simultaneous pancreas - kidney transplant recipients with isolated pancreas failure who do, or do not, receive pancreas re-transplantation. Related to liver transplantation, we have an article from the Australia/New Zealand transplant registry on liver re-transplantation results in the contemporary era that impact transplant waitlist methods. We also have a report from the US on the use of a robotic-assisted competent jejunogastrostomy to manage recalcitrant strictures of the hepaticojejunostomy after right lobe LDLT. For organ and tissue donation coordinators in Australia, there is a study report on the need for improvement of physical examination practices. Please visit our Transplantation Direct website for full article details.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THIS Open Access ISSUE

OPTN'S FALL 2019 PUBLIC COMMENT CYCLE NOW OPEN, ENDS OCT. 2

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network's (OPTN) fall 2019 public comment cycle started August 2nd and ends October 2nd.   

Proposals will be posted on the OPTN website beginning August 2nd: https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/governance/public-comment/

We invite the International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement membership to submit feedback on the proposals suggested below no later than October 2nd, 2019.

• Clarification of Pre-Existing Liver Disease – Liver and Intestinal Organ Transplantation  Committee
• Eliminate the Use of DSA and Region in Kidney Allocation Policy – Kidney Transplantation Committee
• Eliminate the Use of DSA and Region in Pancreas Allocation  Policy – Pancreas Transplantation Committee
• Modify Data Submission Policy – Data Advisory Committee
• Modify Appointment Process for the Histocompatibility Vice Chair – Histocompatibility Committee
• Data Collection to Evaluate the Logistical Impact of Broader Distribution – Operations and Safety Committee
• Expedited Placement of Livers - Organ Procurement Organization Committee Clarification of Pre-Existing Liver Disease

Public Comment Webinars

The OPTN will be holding 3 webinars to give members unable to attend OPTN regional meetings an opportunity to learn about the proposals out for comment and ask questions of the presenters.  Here is a link to more information about the webinars:  https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/learn/professional-education/

Regional Meetings

Every regional meeting this cycle will have a dedicated liver breakout!

Here is a link to the fall meeting schedule: https://unos.org/community/regions/regional-meetings/

Call for OPTN Committee and Board Nominations

A call for nominations has gone out for OPTN Board of Director and Committee vacancies beginning July 2020.  The deadline to submit nominations is September 30.  If you, or anyone you know, is interested in volunteering with the OPTN you can submit a biography form at the following link: OPTN Get Involved Volunteer update

TRANSPLANTATION - HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLE

Dr. Joel Thomas Adler, Editorial Fellow, Transplantation

ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF SUBOPTIMAL DONOR CHARACTERISTICS ON MORTALITY AFTER LIVERTRANSPLANTATION: A TIME-DEPENDENT ANALYSIS COMPARING HCC WITH NON-HCC PATIENTS

Wallace D, Walker K, Charman S, et al.
Transplantation: April 2019 - Volume 103 - Issue 4 - p e89-e98

Because of relatively preserved hepatic function, patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) often receive livers of lower quality. Using a cohort of first-time liver recipients in the United Kingdom, Wallace and colleagues demonstrated that adjusted patient survival was worse for patients with HCC. In a stepwise adjusted analysis, the authors found that the vast majority of this survival difference is explained by recipient rather than donor factors; thus, they conclude that more frequent use of poorer-quality donor organs does not explain the difference.

TRANSPLANTATION - WEEK'S MOST DOWNLOADED PAPER