As many of you know, I’ve just had the honor of being named President of AST. It’s an achievement I don’t take lightly, and I wanted this opportunity to introduce some of my plans for the Society here on the AST Desktop.

We’re currently celebrating the 30th anniversary of AST. As we reflect on the significant advancements that we’ve made as a Society, I can’t help but consider all of the possibilities for the next 30 years – and more immediately, this year. We’ve had significant accomplishments during Bob Gaston’s term as President (including this blog!) and I hope to leverage...

ATC is fast approaching, and with it the end of my term as your President. Our goals at this time last year were to improve our use of technology (witness…the blog, making AJT accessible from our website, electronic voting) and increase collaboration with other groups interested in transplantation (ASTS, ASN, ESOT, ISHLT, et al). Our presence in Washington continues to bear fruit and expand, and we are trying to deal strategically with each of our other targeted areas: organ donation, research, membership, and education. What suggestions do you have for AST leadership as we approach...

Almost everything we do in transplantation is more tightly regulated and monitored than a decade ago. It strikes me that some of this is warranted, some maybe not. Our field, evolving after implementation of the Medicare ESRD program and development of cyclosporine, has always been more closely scrutinized than other areas of medicine. The benefits? Standardization of clinical care has improved outcomes and the burden of regulation has favored larger programs better equipped to deal with it.. Our experience should also be informative to those likely to face new stresses in dealing with...

In 1986, my father, a radiologist, advised me not to go into transplantation; his 60’s vintage medical education taught him “that stuff never works.” By the time he passed away in the mid-90s, Dad knew better. How ironic that even now, a quarter century later, so much misinformation remains regarding what it is we do. The Dick Teresi article/book regarding “the ice-water test, beating heart cadavers” and “blurring the line between life and death” resurrected long-ago-disproven factoids and half-truths in a very public forum, forcing us all to defend the ethics and science underpinning...