Weather permitting, I'll be on my way to Chicago today for a session at the AAAS meeting, on the shortage of organs for transplants.
Transplant Organ Shortage: Informing
National Policies using Management Sciences
Friday, 14 February 2014: 10:00
AM-11:30 AM
Columbus IJ (Hyatt Regency Chicago)
Since the first successful kidney transplant in
1954, outcomes have improved dramatically.
As a result, the wait list for
organ transplants has grown significantly over time. With only about
17,000 kidneys available from combined
living and deceased donors annually, there are currently 99,000 Americans
waiting for a kidney transplant, and the wait-list mortality is now higher than
ever before. National policies for organ allocation are largely dictated by
legislative priorities, but the organ shortage results in a number of
disparities and therefore, there is a
growing interest in optimizing organ allocation policies to develop a balance
between fairness, utility and efficiency.
Organs are a limited, perishable resource and using
them more effectively saves more lives. The speakers in this briefing have
taken an inter-disciplinary approach to addressing the organ allocation in the
U.S., suggesting compelling and provocative solutions. Michael Abecassis, a
transplant surgeon and Chief of the Transplant Program at Northwestern
University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and Past President of the American
Society of Transplant Surgeons will offer a brief overview of the current
issues facing organ allocation. John Friedewald, a transplant nephrologist
and Past Chair of the United Network for
Organ Sharing Kidney and Pancreas Committee, that oversaw the most recent
proposed changes in kidney allocation, also from Northwestern University’s
Feinberg School of Medicine, will speak about the implications of these recent
proposed changes to deceased donor kidney allocation policy. Nobel laureate
(2012) and Stanford University economist Alvin Roth will discuss the evolution
of innovative solutions to the organ shortage and how mathematical models are
used to optimize Kidney Paired Donation and the impact of increasing living
donor kidney transplants on the waiting list for deceased donor transplants.
Sanjay Mehrotra from the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern
University will discuss how simulation models can be used to optimize deceased
donor kidney utilization to maximize utility.
Mark Siegler Director of the University of Chicago’s MacLean Center for
Clinical Medical Ethics and executive director of the Bucksbaum Institute for
Clinical Excellence will will challenge
some long-held beliefs about living donors and will address the salient issues
related to ethical considerations in potential solutions to the organ
shortage..
Michael
Abecassis MD MBA, J. Roscoe Miller Distinguished Professor of Surgery and
Microbiology/Immunology, Chief, Division of Transplantaiton, and Founding
Director, Comprehensive Transplant Center Northwestern University Feinberg
School of Medicine
Organizer
John
Friedewald MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Surgery, Comprehensive
Transplant Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and
former chair, Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for
Organ Sharing Kidney Transplantation Committee
Discussant
Sanjay
Mehrotra PhD, Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management
Sciences, Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering, and
Director, Center for Engineering and Health, Institute for Public Health and
Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Addressing Allocation
Inefficiencies and Geographic Disparities
Alvin
Roth PhD, Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics, Stanford University,
and co-recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
Allocating Donor Organs in Ways
that Increase Their Availability
Mark
Siegler MD, Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and
Surgery, University of Chicago Medicine, Founding Director of the MacLean
Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and Executive Director of the Bucksbaum
Institute for Clinical Excellence
Ethical Considerations for
Innovative Strategies to Increase the Supply of Organs
*******************
Update: here's a picture of the panel:
and here's a news story: Math saving lives: New models help address kidney organ donation shortages
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Update: here's a picture of the panel:
and here's a news story: Math saving lives: New models help address kidney organ donation shortages
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