The Future of Living Donor Kidney Transplants May 7, 2022 (online webinar hosted at U. Chicago)

Yesterday I posted about the increasing incidence and prevalence of end stage renal disease. 

On Saturday I'll be taking part in a medical education webinar, open to the general public, on avenues to increase the availability of safe, ethical and legal kidney transplants.  Some will find it controversial*, even repugnant, since one of the big topics is the ethics of compensating kidney donors. (I'll be talking about some  of the incremental improvements that have been and can be pursued while that discussion goes on. Some of those have also had to overcome some opposition...)

There's an all-star cast of speakers.

The Future of Living Donor Kidney Transplants

May 7, 2022; Virtual; Admission Is Free (join at the link above)

7AM-10 AM (PDT); 9AM-12Noon (CDT); 10AM-1PM (EDT)

Session 1: Ethics of Gifting or Compensation of Donors
Topic	Presenter (s)	Comments	Time (mins.)
			Item	Cu mul.
Ethics of Compensating (“Rewarding”) Donors	Janet Radcliffe Richards	World renown philosopher/ethicist. (Oxford). Book: the ethics of transplants why careless thought costs lives	30	30
Questions, Comments, and Recap Session 1	CON: Asif Sharfuddin M.D. FASN FAST PRO: Sally Satel M.D. M.S.		30	60
Session 2: Living Donor Transplant Issues
Cost-Benefit Analysis of Compensating (“Rewarding” Kidney Donors	Frank McCormick Ph.D.	How the Government Can End the Kidney Shortage and Save More than 40,000 Kidney Failure Patients Each Year by Compensating Living Kidney Donors. Total economic value to kidney recipients is $76B/yr. Net savings to the taxpayers is $7B/yr.	15	75
Current Status and Future Developments in Kidney Exchange Programs	Alvin Roth, Ph.D. Nobel Laurette	Living donor organs are being increasingly allocated by paired and exchange organ programs; This is the only major technical improvement in transplantation in years;	15	90

Session 2: Living Donor Transplant Issues Cont’d
Decreasing Barriers and Increasing Access for Living Donation	Cody Maynard; Independent Living Donor Advocate (NKDO)	Immediate actions we can take to increase the pool of living donors.	10	100
Discussion and Recap of Session 2 (John Fung, M.D, Ph.D.)			10	110
Break			10	120
Session 3: More Living Donor Transplant Issues
Experiences of a Living Kidney Donor;	Martha Gershun, MBA	Author of a recent book with J.D. Lantos MD: Kidney to Share.	10	130
U.S. Public Attitudes Towards Compensating Donors	Thomas Peters M.D.	Two peer reviewed studies show that 70% of US population support compensating donors $50K.	10	140
Risk and Safeguards for Living Donors	Arthur Matas, M.D., Ph.D.	Screening donors is essential. Risks are small but not zero.	15	155
The Limits of Increased Counts of Deceased Donor Transplants	John P. Roberts M.D.	Ignorance is common: Increasing the Deceased Donor pool is constrained by the limits of brain- dead donors; <2% of U.S. deaths.	10	165
WaitList Zero’s role in Living Donation	Josh Morrison J.D.; Founder of WaitList Zero	“Thanks for helping us, we were lost!” comment by a recipient, pointing to the need for education regarding living donors.	10	175
Discussion and Recap Session 3 (Thomas Peters M.D.)			10	185
Recap and Summary of the Symposium Glenn Chertow M.D., MPH			20	205

* Part of the controversy is that some advertisements for the webinar were deleted, here are some tweets on the subject: