Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Transplant News”
We are very excited that TREC’s visionary director, Dr. Amy Waterman, is profiled on The M Dash: Live with purpose, MM.Lafleur’s blog celebrating strong women who make a difference. MM.LaFleur designs wardrobes for women who need to look great in public appearances and behind the scenes but don’t have the time to do a lot of shopping – which fits our director to a T. Dr. Waterman’s profile in MM.LaFleur’s “Women of the Week” column …
Did you hear? Explore Transplant and Explore Living Donation education has been fully revised with evidence-based health literate best practices, and it’s now ready for purchase! These programs, available in English and Spanish, have helped tens of thousands of kidney patients and their loved ones make informed choices about treatment. Health Literacy Media worked with Dr. Amy Waterman to revise her gold standard kidney transplant education programs with a health literacy lens to bring impactful, …
When someone’s kidneys fail, a transplant may be their best treatment option. Unfortunately, there are not enough kidneys for the almost 100,000 people who are waiting for a kidney in the United States today. The mission of the United Network of Organ Sharing is to reduce the organ donor shortage and ensure equal access to transplants for all Americans. Living donor kidney transplant (LDKT), where a friend or a family member donates a kidney to …
You’ve watched it unfold on television or the big screen. A doctor, racing against time, removes a kidney and places it into a cooler, and an assistant runs it to a waiting helicopter. It’s flown to another hospital, and is placed into the waiting patient with seconds to spare. In real life, kidneys are often shipped many miles to complete a kidney paired donation (KPD), where a patient who needs a new kidney is matched with …
In this short video, Explore Transplant’s Christina Goalby, MSW and HLM’s Director of Partnerships and Initiatives Allen Todd discuss educational opportunities available to the transplant community. These include Explore Transplant and Explore Living Donation educational materials and trainings to educate dialysis providers about kidney transplant and living donation.
Where should a kidney patient or potential living donor go online to get comprehensive information about transplant and living donation? How do they know that the information available online can be trusted to be accurate and unbiased? In June 2016, nationally recognized transplant and kidney disease education experts were invited to take part in President Obama’s Organ Donation Summit to improve outcomes for individuals waiting for organ transplants and enhance support for living donors. One …
This October, as the fall leaves changed colors, Dr. Amy Waterman flew to Toronto to represent UCLA, Explore Transplant, and Health Literacy Media at the launch of a provincial initiative to increase the rates of living donor kidney transplants in Ontario. Explore Transplant Ontario is one of the interventions being championed for use within the Access to Kidney Transplantation and Living Donation Strategy, an initiative being sponsored by the Ontario Renal Network (ORN) and the …
An article recently published in Transplantation1 describes the new kidney voucher program, which allows potential kidney donors to donate at a time that works for them, while “reserving” a priority spot on the kidney transplant waitlist for a patient, often a loved one, to be redeemed later. Drs. Jeffrey L. Veale and Amy D. Waterman, both professors at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), are authors on this article. In the voucher program, a donor …
The Terasaki Research Institute (TRI)’s recent Grand Opening celebration, honoring the research and legacy of Dr. Paul Terasaki, was an exciting opportunity to introduce some of the many innovative projects going on at the Institute. The creative workforce behind these projects was present as well, as guests had the opportunity to engage with the group of scientists, researchers, and individuals collaborating together to change the world of transplantation. In addition to the TRI team, the …
“We all need inspiration about what is good in this world.” It was only fitting that Dr. Amy D. Waterman made this statement during the Grand Opening celebration of the Terasaki Research Institute (TRI) on September 10, 2017; honoring the day that would have been Dr. Paul Terasaki’s 88th birthday. Dr. Terasaki gave us inspiration on how to do good in this world, and it is our mission at the Transplant Research and Education Center …
Friends and colleagues, I cannot help but feel lucky and grateful that 2017 has brought fresh and exciting new opportunities. In that spirit and effective immediately, I’m thrilled to announce that my research lab, the Transplant Research and Education Center (TREC), is expanding its research and education portfolio. Currently, TREC is an interdisciplinary research and education team that conducts state of the art clinical research to understand and improve important issues affecting transplant outcomes, intervenes …
Saint Louis, MO – This month we caught up with Christina Goalby, MSW. Christina is the co-creator of the Explore Transplant Provider Training Programs. She’s responsible for the development of Explore Transplant’s Master Trainers and helps to oversee the quality of ET Trainings. Christina has been a nephrology social worker for more than 20 years. Today she’s a Health Literacy Education Manager at Health Literacy Media, the organization that partners with and administers ET’s programs …
For former dialysis social worker, Marianne Wilson, there was always a compelling connection between the study of human society, its cultures, healthcare, and human behavior—so much so that an undergraduate degree in anthropology blossomed into a post-college job helping low income city homeowners in St. Louis and shortly thereafter, a degree in social work with a health concentration. “Choosing the health concentration in social work training related to previous research I had done on cultures …
Have you ever wondered why people choose to donate a kidney? And whether these donors regret their decision later? Amy Waterman first became interested in organ donation over 20 years ago when she conducted surveys of kidney donors as a graduate student in social psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. “It was amazing that hundreds of living donors we surveyed not only told us that they didn’t regret their decision, but also found it …
Sometimes you have to travel a long way to understand that health challenges are more universal than you think. Enter my 9,000 mile, 29-hour flight to Singapore recently, which took me very far away from home to discuss an issue that is really close to my heart, helping kidney patients and potential living donors learn about the option of living donation. I had never been to Asia and had never been on a flight that …
Amy Waterman It takes a village to create and deliver the kind of kidney transplant education that can really meet the needs of healthcare providers, patients, and donors across the United States. To reach 650,000 plus people suffering from end-stage-renal-disease (ESRD). For those of us who work in this field, it also feels as if change is the only constant. While working in my first academic job as a faculty member at Washington University, St. …
Dear Readers, People always ask me why I work in the field of transplant. I took a memoir writing course where I wrote a piece about the moment I fell in love with this field. I was 28 years old. – Amy Waterman I got an email from the kidney surgeon that morning. The note was direct: “Transplant surgery tomorrow. Need permission from the family to observe. Meet me at 4 pm.” I left my …
Heather Lawyer’s decades long career in transplantation education began by accident in a restaurant. Today she’s an Explore Transplant Master Trainer who reaches out to dialysis providers around the country. While a strong transplant advocate, Heather also believes that the most powerful education helps providers and patients understand all of their options. “I stand in awe of the nurses, technicians, social workers, dieticians and secretaries who work tirelessly with those on dialysis, for whom there …
I am attending a workshop in Norwich, Connecticut these last two weeks of October. Here at the Norwich Spa and Inn, walking past historic red brick buildings and a bee aviary along stone pathways, I have had the privilege of seeing the fall leaves at their true peak, literally exploding. The beauty of the red, green, and yellow leaves is so great that just stepping outside causes me to involuntarily catch my breath. I am …
Last week, I spoke at the White House at the Organ Donation Summit. People have asked me what it was like. To understand what that day was like, you have to go back in time 20 years. You are now a graduate student in Social Psychology, living on $15,000 for seven years as you finish your PhD. You crash into the field of transplantation unexpectedly and are blown away by its beauty. Here, people are …