ONLINE: Trends in Transplantation

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLkooFLMNBo

press release: In Wisconsin alone, more than 3,000 people — family members, friends, and neighbors — are waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant or life-changing tissue transplant. And a new name is added to the transplant waitlist every 10 minutes!

It’s because of that need, and a calling to make a difference, that Wisconsin Medicine’s UW Health Transplant and UW Organ and Tissue Donation programs have been working for more than 50 years to save lives through transplantation.

The next Wisconsin Medicine Livestream will examine how doctors and researchers continue to push the boundaries in transplantation in ways like:

Paired kidney exchange. Also known as a “kidney swap,” this is an exciting practice that lessens the kidney donation shortage and allows incompatible donors to still give their kidneys. It’s a critically important part of UW Health’s program, where more than half the living donor kidney transplants are from paired donors.

Heart transplants. Learn about new advancements in an area where the UW has one of the most prominent and active programs in the country.

COVID-19 research. Of course, COVID-19 has impacted the ability to perform transplantations. But the UW has been at the cutting edge of research development since the pandemic began and was one of the first centers to accept transplant patients who had previously tested positive for the coronavirus. Take a fascinating look into how such lifesaving work can continue with populations that may have suppressed immune systems.

Featured guests:

Didier A. Mandelbrot, MD, professor, Department of Medicine; Virginia Lee Cook Professor in Transplant Nephrology; chief, Transplant Nephrology Section; medical director, Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation

Jason W. Smith, MD, FACS, associate professor, Department of Surgery; surgical director, Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Support

Jeannina Smith, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine; medical director, Transplant Infectious Disease Program

This presentation will be moderated by Robert N. Golden, MD, the dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.