June, 2019
The American Society of Transplantation (AST) announced its recently elected 2019-2020 board members, including its new President, President-elect, and Secretary, at the American Transplant Congress (ATC) in Boston, MA. The AST inducted its new president, Emily Blumberg, MD during its annual meeting on June 3, 2019.
Dr. Blumberg is a Transplant Infectious Diseases specialist and the Director of the Transplant Infectious Diseases Program and the Infectious Diseases Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been a member of the AST since 1999 and has been the Chair of the Training...
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April, 2019
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The American Journal of Transplantation invites applications for its newly established Editorial Fellowship Program, which will offer a yearlong editorial experience in the publication and peer review process to fellows and junior faculty in transplant-related fields.
Each AJT Editorial Fellow will work directly with an experienced Associate Editor and staff to gain experience in the day-to-day steps of peer review and publication through a mentor-based relationship. Each mentor–mentee pair will review original submissions together to help the fellow develop...
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March, 2019
We are pleased to announce that the AST Governance Committee has finalized the ballot for the 2019 AST Board Elections. On behalf of the Society, we would like to sincerely thank each of you who submitted a nomination or expressed interest in joining the AST Board of Directors.
The AST received nearly 30 nominations for this election. The large number of exceptional candidates made the selection process especially challenging this year. The Governance Committee ultimately recommended expanding the pool of nominees put forward for each of the three open Councilor-at-Large positions from two...
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February, 2019
On February 22, 2019, the American Society of Transplantation proudly presented the AST Innovation Award to the National Kidney Registry for their work in kidney paired exchange. Garet Hil, Joe Sinacore, and Gabriel Danovitch accepted the award at the Cutting Edge of Transplantation (CEoT) meeting in Phoenix, AZ.
The National Kidney Registry successfully operationalized a national, multi-center paired kidney exchange program with a growing network of over 90 centers. They have facilitated over 3,000 kidney paired donations since they began in 2008. This program’s successes led to reduced...
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The AST values its members and consistently works to improve member experience. The AST is launching an improved Member Portal!
Due to the upgrade, some member services will be unavailable between Monday, February 25 and Tuesday, March 5, including:
Editing your profile
Changing your COP selections
Making a donation to the AST
Renewing your membership, if you have not done so already
During this time, members can still access the online American Journal of Transplantation, COP Community Hub communications, and online educational materials.
The new Member Portal will offer many new...
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WASHINGTON, D.C. --Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), joined by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), introduced the Living Donor Protection Act of 2019 to protect the rights of living organ donors.
Organ donation saves thousands of lives every year, but roadblocks remain that too often stop individuals from becoming living donors. Last year, after pressure from Congress, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a legal opinion stating that individuals who choose to donate an organ are covered under the Family...
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OPTN/UNOS public comment is now open through March 22, 2019. As a member of the transplant community, you are encouraged to post your thoughts on the
OPTN website during the public comment period, as both individual and organization comments are considered by the sponsoring committee during the policy development process. There are now ten proposals offered, with a recent addition that is focused on MELD exception scores during the National Liver Review Board transition.
During the public comment period, UNOS offers and...
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The nomination window for the AST Community of Practice (COP) election is now open. To learn more about the available positions,
click here. All nominations must be submitted by February 25.
To learn more, visit the
COP election page.
An
informational flyer was developed by the AST Pediatric, Infectious Disease, and Transplant Pharmacy Communities of Practice. This flyer was created to help educate the transplant patient community about the flu vaccine.
The AST acknowledges the value of clinical practice guidelines/recommendations and intends to contribute by creating evidence-based guidance for select topics relevant to transplant practice. At this time, the AST Board has approved the creation of "AST Clinical Practice Recommendations for Induction Immunosuppression in Kidney Transplantation" and is seeking a multidisciplinary panel of experts to support this initiative. The AST invites self-nominations to serve on the project's writing and/or the review groups. Final participants will be appointed by the AST Board, with input from the AST...
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