Organ donation and transplant professionals from around the world convened on March 23 in a town hall webinar aimed at helping health care professionals navigate the ever-evolving COVID-19 health crisis. “Our goal was to share our experiences to date and respond to questions about the impact of COVID-19 on organ donation and transplantation,” said Shandie Covington, Chief Executive Officer of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) who worked with colleagues from nearly a dozen organizations to produce the free live webinar for 1,000 organ donation and transplant professionals across the country.
A recording of “COVID-19: Organ Donation and Transplant Town Hall” is now available online.
Welcome and Introduction – Emily Blumberg (AST)
COVID-19: Presentation, Diagnosis, Testing, Treatment, and Prevention – Moderator: Deepali Kumar (AST)
- Background/Disease Presentation – Erika Lease (ISHLT)
- U.S. Cases – Ajit Limaye
- Immunosuppression management in COVID+ – Attilio Iacovoni (ESOT)
- Antivirals and Immunomodulators – Paolo Grossi (ESOT)
- Prevention (infection control) – Marian Michaels (AST)
- Pediatrics – impact on this population – Lara Danziger-Isakov (ISHLT)
Getting to Transplant: Donor Issues and Candidate Concerns – Moderator: Lloyd Ratner (ASTS)
- Getting to transplant
- Donor issues/screening and testing platforms – Mike Ison (TTS)
- Procurement strategies – special safeguards needed for HCW, OPO and surgeon – Ajit Limaye, Kevin O’Connor (AOPO), Kelly Ranum
- Candidate concerns – managing the organ offer – Luciano Potena (ESOT)
Operational Issues (In-House and Managing Patient Concerns) – Moderator: Maryl Johnson (UNOS)
- Operational Issues
- Working with the institution to function during a pandemic – scaling back services, patient cohorting, logistics, determining resource sharing – Atul Humar (CST), Luciano Potena (ESOT)
- Managing patient and family concerns, 90-day medication supply – Stacee Lerret (NATCO)
- Practical approaches to visits off-site (telemedicine, etc.) – Lewis Tepermann (ASTS)
Next steps: Data Collection and Sharing – Moderator: Stuart Sweet (ISHLT)
- Next steps
- Data collection – the need to collect data and better understand what we are seeing – Tim Pruett (ASTS)
- Clearing peer review to get information into journals efficiently – Allan Kirk (AJT)
Closing and Resources: Emily Blumberg (AST)
- Available Resources
- Refreshing resources as new information is established
- Closing Thoughts
The town hall webinar was a collaborative effort between:
- American Society of Transplantation (AST)
- Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO)
- American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS)
- North American Transplant Coordinators Organization (NATCO)
- United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)
- Canadian Society of Transplantation (CST)
- European Society of Transplantation (ESOT)
- International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT)
- The Transplantation Society (TTS)
For more information about COVID-19, including advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, and other sources, please visit UNOS’ COVID-19 resources page. The page will be refreshed regularly with the most currently available information.
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