Scholars@Duke
Lisa M McElroy

Lisa M McElroy

Assistant Professor of Surgery
Surgery, Abdominal Transplant Surgery
lisa.mcelroy@duke.edu
DUMC 3512, Durham, NC 27710
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Selected Publications

Provision of transplant education for patients starting dialysis: Disparities persist.

Journal Article Heliyon · September 15, 2024 BACKGROUND: All patients starting dialysis should be informed of kidney transplant as a renal replacement therapy option. Prior research has shown disparities in provision of this information. In this study, we aimed to identify patient sociodemographic an ... Full text Link to item Cite

Quality measures in pre-liver transplant care by the Practice Metrics Committee of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

Journal Article Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) · September 2024 The liver transplantation (LT) evaluation and waitlisting process is subject to variations in care that can impede quality. The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Practice Metrics Committee (PMC) developed quality measures and pat ... Full text Cite

Generating strategies for a national comeback in pancreas transplantation: A Delphi survey and US conference report.

Conference Am J Transplant · August 2024 In the United States, potential transplant candidates with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus are inconsistently offered pancreas transplantation (PTx), contributing to a dramatic decline in pancreas allograft utilization over the past 2 decades. The Amer ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pragmatic strategies to address health disparities along the continuum of care in chronic liver disease.

Journal Article Hepatol Commun · May 1, 2024 Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities exist in the prevalence and natural history of chronic liver disease, access to care, and clinical outcomes. Solutions to improve health equity range widely, from digital health tools to policy changes. The cur ... Full text Link to item Cite

Context Is Everything.

Journal Article Transplantation · March 1, 2024 Full text Link to item Cite

Incidence of Kidney Failure after Primary Organ Transplant.

Journal Article Kidney360 · January 1, 2024 KEY POINTS: Incidence of ESKD in the first year after primary organ transplant ranges from 2.4% to 3.6% and from 1.4% to 1.8% in the second year post-transplant. National data sources do not currently collect sufficiently reliable follow-up data to identif ... Full text Link to item Cite

Improving Health Equity in Living Donor Kidney Transplant: Application of an Implementation Science Framework.

Journal Article Transplant Proc · 2024 BACKGROUND: Interventions to improve racial equity in access to living donor kidney transplants (LDKT) have focused primarily on patients, ignoring the contributions of clinicians, transplant centers, and health system factors. Obtaining access to LDKT is ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association of Age and Gender With Concerns About Live Donor Kidney Transplantation Among Black Individuals.

Conference Transplant Proc · December 2023 Black individuals are less likely to receive live donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) compared to others. This may be partly related to their concerns about LDKT, which can vary based on age and gender. We conducted a cross-sectional, secondary analysis of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Racial Equity in Living Donor Kidney Transplant Centers, 2008-2018.

Journal Article JAMA network open · December 2023 ImportanceIt is unclear whether center-level factors are associated with racial equity in living donor kidney transplant (LDKT).ObjectiveTo evaluate center-level factors and racial equity in LDKT during an 11-year time period.Design, ... Full text Cite

Residential Structural Racism and Prevalence of Chronic Health Conditions.

Journal Article JAMA Netw Open · December 1, 2023 IMPORTANCE: Studies elucidating determinants of residential neighborhood-level health inequities are needed. OBJECTIVE: To quantify associations of structural racism indicators with neighborhood prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes, and hyp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Defining the Need for Causal Inference to Understand the Impact of Social Determinants of Health: A Primer on Behalf of the Consortium for the Holistic Assessment of Risk in Transplantation (CHART).

Journal Article Ann Surg Open · December 2023 OBJECTIVE: This study aims to introduce key concepts and methods that inform the design of studies that seek to quantify the causal effect of social determinants of health (SDOH) on access to and outcomes following organ transplant. BACKGROUND: The causal ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Characterization of social determinants of health of a liver transplant referral population.

Journal Article Liver Transpl · November 1, 2023 Disparities exist in referral and access to the liver transplant (LT) waitlist, and social determinants of health (SDOH) are increasingly recognized as important factors driving health inequities, including in LT. The SDOH of potential transplant candidate ... Full text Link to item Cite

One size does not fit all: Differential benefits of simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation by eligibility criteria.

Journal Article Liver Transpl · November 1, 2023 Standard eligibility criteria for simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation (SLK) are in place in the United States. We hypothesize that the benefit associated with SLK over liver transplant alone differs by patient, depending on the specific SLK criteria ... Full text Link to item Cite

A framework to improve retention of Black surgical trainees: A Society of Black Academic Surgeons white paper.

Journal Article Am J Surg · October 2023 Attrition is high among surgical trainees, and six of ten trainees consider leaving their programs, with two ultimately leaving before completion of training. Given known historically and systemically rooted biases, Black surgical trainees are at high risk ... Full text Link to item Cite

Identifying and understanding variation in population-based access to liver transplantation in the United States.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · September 2023 We aimed to identify variations in liver transplant access across transplant referral regions (TRRs), accounting for differences in population characteristics and practice environments. Adult end-stage liver disease (ESLD) deaths and liver waitlist additio ... Full text Link to item Cite

Provision of transplant education for patients starting dialysis: Disparities persist.

Journal Article Heliyon · September 15, 2024 BACKGROUND: All patients starting dialysis should be informed of kidney transplant as a renal replacement therapy option. Prior research has shown disparities in provision of this information. In this study, we aimed to identify patient sociodemographic an ... Full text Link to item Cite

Quality measures in pre-liver transplant care by the Practice Metrics Committee of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

Journal Article Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) · September 2024 The liver transplantation (LT) evaluation and waitlisting process is subject to variations in care that can impede quality. The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Practice Metrics Committee (PMC) developed quality measures and pat ... Full text Cite

Generating strategies for a national comeback in pancreas transplantation: A Delphi survey and US conference report.

Conference Am J Transplant · August 2024 In the United States, potential transplant candidates with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus are inconsistently offered pancreas transplantation (PTx), contributing to a dramatic decline in pancreas allograft utilization over the past 2 decades. The Amer ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pragmatic strategies to address health disparities along the continuum of care in chronic liver disease.

Journal Article Hepatol Commun · May 1, 2024 Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities exist in the prevalence and natural history of chronic liver disease, access to care, and clinical outcomes. Solutions to improve health equity range widely, from digital health tools to policy changes. The cur ... Full text Link to item Cite

Context Is Everything.

Journal Article Transplantation · March 1, 2024 Full text Link to item Cite

Incidence of Kidney Failure after Primary Organ Transplant.

Journal Article Kidney360 · January 1, 2024 KEY POINTS: Incidence of ESKD in the first year after primary organ transplant ranges from 2.4% to 3.6% and from 1.4% to 1.8% in the second year post-transplant. National data sources do not currently collect sufficiently reliable follow-up data to identif ... Full text Link to item Cite

Improving Health Equity in Living Donor Kidney Transplant: Application of an Implementation Science Framework.

Journal Article Transplant Proc · 2024 BACKGROUND: Interventions to improve racial equity in access to living donor kidney transplants (LDKT) have focused primarily on patients, ignoring the contributions of clinicians, transplant centers, and health system factors. Obtaining access to LDKT is ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association of Age and Gender With Concerns About Live Donor Kidney Transplantation Among Black Individuals.

Conference Transplant Proc · December 2023 Black individuals are less likely to receive live donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) compared to others. This may be partly related to their concerns about LDKT, which can vary based on age and gender. We conducted a cross-sectional, secondary analysis of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Racial Equity in Living Donor Kidney Transplant Centers, 2008-2018.

Journal Article JAMA network open · December 2023 ImportanceIt is unclear whether center-level factors are associated with racial equity in living donor kidney transplant (LDKT).ObjectiveTo evaluate center-level factors and racial equity in LDKT during an 11-year time period.Design, ... Full text Cite

Residential Structural Racism and Prevalence of Chronic Health Conditions.

Journal Article JAMA Netw Open · December 1, 2023 IMPORTANCE: Studies elucidating determinants of residential neighborhood-level health inequities are needed. OBJECTIVE: To quantify associations of structural racism indicators with neighborhood prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes, and hyp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Defining the Need for Causal Inference to Understand the Impact of Social Determinants of Health: A Primer on Behalf of the Consortium for the Holistic Assessment of Risk in Transplantation (CHART).

Journal Article Ann Surg Open · December 2023 OBJECTIVE: This study aims to introduce key concepts and methods that inform the design of studies that seek to quantify the causal effect of social determinants of health (SDOH) on access to and outcomes following organ transplant. BACKGROUND: The causal ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Characterization of social determinants of health of a liver transplant referral population.

Journal Article Liver Transpl · November 1, 2023 Disparities exist in referral and access to the liver transplant (LT) waitlist, and social determinants of health (SDOH) are increasingly recognized as important factors driving health inequities, including in LT. The SDOH of potential transplant candidate ... Full text Link to item Cite

One size does not fit all: Differential benefits of simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation by eligibility criteria.

Journal Article Liver Transpl · November 1, 2023 Standard eligibility criteria for simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation (SLK) are in place in the United States. We hypothesize that the benefit associated with SLK over liver transplant alone differs by patient, depending on the specific SLK criteria ... Full text Link to item Cite

A framework to improve retention of Black surgical trainees: A Society of Black Academic Surgeons white paper.

Journal Article Am J Surg · October 2023 Attrition is high among surgical trainees, and six of ten trainees consider leaving their programs, with two ultimately leaving before completion of training. Given known historically and systemically rooted biases, Black surgical trainees are at high risk ... Full text Link to item Cite

Identifying and understanding variation in population-based access to liver transplantation in the United States.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · September 2023 We aimed to identify variations in liver transplant access across transplant referral regions (TRRs), accounting for differences in population characteristics and practice environments. Adult end-stage liver disease (ESLD) deaths and liver waitlist additio ... Full text Link to item Cite

Heart-Kidney Allocation Policy and Proposals Impact Equity of Access for Patients with End-Stage Kidney Disease

Journal Article Current Transplantation Reports · September 1, 2023 Purpose of Review: To summarize contemporary evidence describing the most appropriate candidates for simultaneous heart kidney transplantation (SHK), estimates of how SHK affects the entire transplantation system and implications of recently enacted SHK al ... Full text Cite

Equity in liver transplantation: are we any closer?

Journal Article Curr Opin Organ Transplant · August 1, 2023 PURPOSE OF REVIEW: As policies governing liver transplantation (LT) continue to change and influence clinical practice, it is important to monitor trends in equitable access and outcomes amongst patients. The purpose of this review is to closely examine re ... Full text Link to item Cite

A comparison of deprivation indices and application to transplant populations.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · March 2023 The choice of deprivation index can influence conclusions drawn regarding the extent of deprivation within a community and the identification of the most deprived communities in the United States. This study aimed to determine the degree of correlation amo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Rates of employment after liver transplant: A nationwide cohort study.

Journal Article Hepatol Commun · March 1, 2023 BACKGROUND: Employment outcomes after liver transplant (LT) over the past decade have not been described. METHODS: LT recipients ages 18-65 from 2010-2018 were identified in Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network data. Employment within two years po ... Full text Link to item Cite

An appraisal of technical variant grafts compared to whole liver grafts in pediatric liver transplant recipients: Multicenter analysis from the SPLIT registry.

Journal Article Pediatr Transplant · February 2023 BACKGROUND: Shortages of liver allografts for children awaiting transplantation have led to high LT waitlist mortality. Prior studies have shown that usage of TVG can reduce waiting time and waitlist mortality, but their use is not universal. We sought to ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association of the Affordable Care Act on Access to and Outcomes After Kidney or Liver Transplant: A Transplant Registry Study.

Journal Article Transplant Proc · 2023 BACKGROUND: To evaluate the effect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion on payor mix among patients on the kidney and liver transplant waiting list as well as waiting list and post-transplant outcomes. DESIGN: Using the Scientific Registry o ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Role of Social Vulnerability in Liver Waitlisting and Transplantation

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2023 Cite

Patient Disparities in Consent for HCV NAT plus Solid Organ Transplant

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2023 Cite

Geography, inequities, and the social determinants of health in transplantation.

Journal Article Front Public Health · 2023 Among the causes of inequity in organ transplantation, geography is oft-cited but rarely defined with precision. Traditionally, geographic inequity has been characterized by variation in distance to transplant centers, availability of deceased organ donors ... Full text Link to item Cite

The impact of race on utilization of durable left ventricular assist device therapy in patients with advanced heart failure.

Journal Article J Card Surg · November 2022 BACKGROUND: Heart failure affects >6 million people in the United States alone and is most prevalent in Black patients who suffer the highest mortality risk. Yet prior studies have suggested that Black patients are less likely to receive advanced heart fai ... Full text Link to item Cite

Social Determinants of Health Data Capture Within National and Health System Data Sources

Conference Journal of the American College of Surgeons · November 2022 Full text Cite

Social determinants of health data in solid organ transplantation: National data sources and future directions.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · October 2022 Health equity research in transplantation has largely relied on national data sources, yet the availability of social determinants of health (SDOH) data varies widely among these sources. We sought to characterize the extent to which national data sources ... Full text Link to item Cite

Receipt and Sharing of Information to Improve Knowledge About Living Donor Kidney Transplant among Transplant Candidates with Advanced Chronic Kidney Disease.

Journal Article Prog Transplant · September 2022 Introduction: Knowledge about living donor kidney transplant (LDKT) is associated with greater access. Yet, little is known about factors associated with high living donor transplant knowledge. Research Questions: Is receipt of LDKT information from health ... Full text Link to item Cite

Decisional Conflict About Kidney Failure Treatment Modalities Among Adults With Advanced CKD.

Journal Article Kidney Med · September 2022 RATIONALE & OBJECTIVE: Choosing from multiple kidney failure treatment modalities can create decisional conflict, but little is known about this experience before decision implementation. We explored decisional conflict about treatment for kidney failure a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Geospatial Analysis of Organ Transplant Referral Regions.

Journal Article JAMA Netw Open · September 1, 2022 IMPORTANCE: System and center-level interventions to improve health equity in organ transplantation benefit from robust characterization of the referral population served by each transplant center. Transplant referral regions (TRRs) define geographic catch ... Full text Link to item Cite

Global overview of the management of acute cholecystitis during the COVID-19 pandemic (CHOLECOVID study).

Journal Article BJS Open · May 2, 2022 BACKGROUND: This study provides a global overview of the management of patients with acute cholecystitis during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: CHOLECOVID is an international, multicentre, observational comparative study of patients ad ... Full text Link to item Cite

Center variations in patient selection for simultaneous heart-kidney transplantation.

Journal Article Clin Transplant · May 2022 UNLABELLED: There are no established regulations governing patient selection for simultaneous heart-kidney (SHK) transplantation, creating the potential for significant center-level variations in clinical practice. METHODS: Using the United Network for Org ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of race on pancreas transplant outcomes in the current era: It is not all Black and White.

Journal Article Clin Transplant · April 2022 The growth in pancreas transplant is driven in part by expansion of indications to include an increasing number of select patients with type 2 diabetes. Two papers in this month's issue of Clinical transplantation specifically investigate this association, ... Full text Link to item Cite

A scoping review of inequities in access to organ transplant in the United States.

Journal Article Int J Equity Health · February 12, 2022 BACKGROUND: Organ transplant is the preferred treatment for end-stage organ disease, yet the majority of patients with end-stage organ disease are never placed on the transplant waiting list. Limited access to the transplant waiting list combined with the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Disparities in Discussions about Kidney Replacement Therapy in CKD Care.

Journal Article Kidney360 · January 27, 2022 Participants who identified as female and Black reported more thorough discussions of dialysis than transplant.Participants with low incomes and education reported more thorough discussions of dialysis than transplant. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Post-Liver Transplant Delirium Risk Assessment Screening Tool

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2022 Cite

Renal Failure After Primary Organ Transplantation

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2022 Cite

Healthcare Cost and Kidney Allocation in Liver Recipients with Kidney Disease

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2022 Cite

The Financial Burden of Transplant - A Commercial Claims Analysis

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2022 Cite

Barriers to Completing the Transplant Evaluation Process: A Mixed-Methods Study.

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2022 Cite

Left lateral segment liver volume is not correlated with anthropometric measures.

Journal Article HPB (Oxford) · December 2021 BACKGROUND: Liver transplantation is definitive therapy for end stage liver disease in pediatric patients. Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) with the left lateral segment (LLS) is often a feasible option. However, the size of LLS is an important fa ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Historical Cohort in Kidney Transplantation: 55-Year Follow-Up of 72 HLA-Identical, Donor-Recipient Pairs.

Journal Article J Clin Med · November 24, 2021 The impact of HLA matching on graft survival has been well characterized in renal transplantation, with a higher degree of matching associated with superior graft survival. Additionally, living donor grafts are known to confer superior survival compared to ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Cascade of Structural Barriers Contributing to Racial Kidney Transplant Inequities.

Journal Article Adv Chronic Kidney Dis · November 2021 Stark racial disparities in access to and receipt of kidney transplantation, especially living donor and pre-emptive transplantation, have persisted despite decades of investigation and intervention. The causes of these disparities are complex, are inter-r ... Full text Link to item Cite

Reexamining Risk Aversion: Willingness to Pursue and Utilize Nonideal Donor Livers Among US Donation Service Areas.

Journal Article Transplant Direct · September 2021 BACKGROUND: Livers from "nonideal" but acceptable donors are underutilized; however, organ procurement organization (OPO) metrics do not assess how OPO-specific practices contribute to these trends. In this analysis, we evaluated nonideal liver donor avoid ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of Covid-19 on kidney transplant and waiting list patients: Lessons from the first wave of the pandemic.

Journal Article Nephrol Ther · August 2021 BACKGROUND: The first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a drastic reduction in kidney transplantation and a profound change in transplant care in France. It is critical for kidney transplant centers to understand the behaviors, concerns and wishes ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Impact of the 2017 Kidney Allocation Policy Change on Simultaneous Liver-Kidney Utilization and Outcomes.

Journal Article Liver Transpl · August 2021 Historically in the United States, kidneys for simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation (SLKT) candidates were allocated with livers, prioritizing SLKT recipients over much of the kidney waiting list. A 2017 change in policy delineated renal function crit ... Full text Link to item Cite

Need for improvements in simultaneous heart-kidney allocation: The limitation of pretransplant glomerular filtration rate.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · July 2021 The incidence of simultaneous heart-kidney transplant (SHK) has increased markedly in the last 15 years. There are no universally agreed upon indications for SHK vs. heart alone (HA) transplant, and center evaluation processes vary widely. We utilized Scie ... Full text Link to item Cite

Transplant social worker and donor financial assistance to increase living donor kidney transplants among African Americans: The TALKS Study, a randomized comparative effectiveness trial.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · June 2021 Lack of donors hinders living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) for African Americans. We studied the effectiveness of a transplant social worker intervention (TALK SWI) alone or paired with living donor financial assistance to activate African Americans ... Full text Link to item Cite

Eudaimonia: An Aristotelian approach to transplantation.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · June 2021 Despite extraordinary achievements in over the past 20 years, the field of transplantation remains hindered by relatively narrow metrics for success. Eudaimonia is an Aristotelian concept that refers to flourishing, or achieving the best conditions possibl ... Full text Link to item Cite

Definition and Analysis of Textbook Outcome: A Novel Quality Measure in Kidney Transplantation.

Journal Article World J Surg · May 2021 BACKGROUND: "Textbook outcome" (TO) is a novel composite quality measure that encompasses multiple postoperative endpoints, representing the ideal "textbook" hospitalization for complex surgical procedures. We defined TO for kidney transplantation using a ... Full text Link to item Cite

African Americans' discussions about living-donor kidney transplants with family or friends: Who, what, and why not?

Journal Article Clin Transplant · April 2021 BACKGROUND: Although discussions with family or friends can improve access to living-donor kidney transplantation (LDKT), they remain an understudied step in the LDKT process. METHODS: Among 300 African American transplant candidates, we examined how socio ... Full text Link to item Cite

Donor-Recipient Height Mismatch Is Associated With Decreased Survival in Pediatric-to-Adult Liver Transplant Recipients.

Journal Article Liver Transpl · February 2021 Liver grafts from pediatric donors represent a small fraction of grafts transplanted into adult recipients, and their use in adults requires special consideration of donor size to prevent perioperative complications. In the past, graft weight or volume rat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Need for Pretransplant Midodrine Does Not Negatively Impact Simultaneous Liver-kidney Transplant Outcomes.

Journal Article Transplant Direct · January 2021 BACKGROUND: Midodrine is often needed pretransplant to improve hemodynamics in simultaneous liver-kidney transplant candidates. Previous research has shown that patients requiring midodrine before kidney transplant alone have increased posttransplant risk ... Full text Link to item Cite

Assessment of Transplant Trainee Education and Recruitment Experiences

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2021 Cite

Transplant Trainee Education and Recruitment Experiences

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2021 Cite

Experiences of Women Trainees in Transplant Surgery

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2021 Cite

Using Hepatocellular Carcinoma Tumor Burden Score to Stratify Prognosis after Liver Transplantation.

Journal Article Cancers (Basel) · November 14, 2020 Liver transplantation (LT) remains a mainstay of treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Tumor factors such as size and number of tumors define eligibility for LT using the Milan criteria. The tumor burden score (TBS) incorporates both tumor number a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Kidney transplant in the COVID era: Cautious optimism and continued vigilance.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · November 2020 The authors comment on the usefulness of a new model to advise centers on risks versus benefits of kidney transplantation during the COVID epidemic. See page 2997 for Massie et al's article. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Decreased graft loss following implementation of the kidney allocation score (KAS).

Journal Article Am J Surg · November 2020 BACKGROUND: The Kidney Allocation System (KAS) was developed to improve equity and utility in organ allocation. We examine the effect of this change on kidney graft distribution and survival. METHODS: UNOS data was used to identify first-time adult recipie ... Full text Link to item Cite

Textbook Outcomes in Liver Transplantation.

Journal Article World J Surg · October 2020 BACKGROUND: Textbook outcome (TO) is an emerging concept within multiple surgical domains, which represents a novel effort to define a standardized, composite quality benchmark based on multiple postoperative endpoints that represent the ideal "textbook" h ... Full text Link to item Cite

Outcomes in Kidney Transplantation Between Veterans Affairs and Civilian Hospitals: Considerations in the Context of the MISSION Act.

Journal Article Ann Surg · September 1, 2020 OBJECTIVE: We sought to compare kidney transplantation outcomes between Veterans Affairs (VA) and non-VA transplant centers. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Transplant care at the VA has previously been scrutinized due to geographic and systematic barriers. The r ... Full text Link to item Cite

Going the distance for procurement of donation after circulatory death livers for transplantation-Does reimbursement reflect reality?

Journal Article Clin Transplant · February 2020 Donation after circulatory death (DCD) liver transplantation (LT) has increased slowly over the past decade. Given that transplant surgeons generally determine liver offer acceptance, understanding surgeon incentives and disincentives is paramount. The pur ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gender Disparities in Patients With Alcoholic Liver Disease Evaluated for Liver Transplantation.

Journal Article Transplantation · February 2020 BACKGROUND: The morbidity and mortality from alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) is increasing in the United States. However, little is known about gender differences in evaluation and listing for liver transplantation (LT) in patients with ALD. METHODS: T ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index Predicts Clinical Outcomes in Kidney Transplant Recipients.

Journal Article In Vivo · 2020 BACKGROUND: Outcomes after kidney transplantation (KTx) remain limited by delayed graft function (DGF) and acute rejection. Non-invasive biomarkers may help identify patients at increased risk for these events. We examined the association between the syste ... Full text Link to item Cite

Increased Graft Survival Following Implementation of the Kidney Allocation Score

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2020 Cite

Agree on much, except it is time for change.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · July 2019 The imbalance between supply and demand of organs for transplant will not be fully solved by changes to the allocation system. Improved organ donation and utilization must be accomplished through critical reassessment of organ procurement organization (OPO ... Full text Link to item Cite

Fault Tree Analysis.

Journal Article Am J Med Qual · 2017 The purpose of this study was to use fault tree analysis to evaluate the adequacy of quality reporting programs in identifying root causes of postoperative bloodstream infection (BSI). A systematic review of the literature was used to construct a fault tre ... Full text Link to item Cite

Portal Steal Syndrome After Full-Size Deceased Donor Liver Transplantation.

Journal Article WMJ · June 2016 Successful liver transplantation typically results in an immediate decrease in intrahepatic resistance accompanied by an initial increased hepatopedal portal flow. Within a short period of time, the portal hypertension resolves and the variceal shunts invo ... Link to item Cite

Failure mode and effects analysis: a comparison of two common risk prioritisation methods.

Journal Article BMJ Qual Saf · May 2016 BACKGROUND: Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a method of risk assessment increasingly used in healthcare over the past decade. The traditional method, however, can require substantial time and training resources. The goal of this study is to com ... Full text Link to item Cite

Applying the WHO conceptual framework for the International Classification for Patient Safety to a surgical population.

Journal Article Int J Qual Health Care · April 2016 OBJECTIVE: Efforts to improve patient safety are challenged by the lack of universally agreed upon terms. The International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS) was developed by the World Health Organization for this purpose. This study aimed to test t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Reducing Hospital Readmissions via Optimization of Emergency Department Care.

Journal Article Transplantation · April 2016 Over the past 5 years, early hospital readmissions have become a national focus. With several recent publications highlighting the high rates of early hospital readmissions among transplant recipients, more work is needed to identify risk factors and strat ... Full text Link to item Cite

The hospital pager: Out with the old or here to stay?

Journal Article Clinical Liver Disease · February 1, 2016 Full text Cite

Observation for assessment of clinician performance: a narrative review.

Journal Article BMJ Qual Saf · January 2016 BACKGROUND: Video recorded and in-person observations are methods of quality assessment and monitoring that have been employed in high risk industries. In the medical field, observations have been used to evaluate the quality and safety of various clinical ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Evolution of Living Kidney Donation and Transplantation in Older Adults.

Journal Article J Am Geriatr Soc · December 2015 Kidney transplantation is a good option for adults aged 65 and older with end-stage renal disease because it has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality, improve quality of life, and is more cost-effective than other renal replacement options. However ... Full text Link to item Cite

Clinician perceptions of operating room to intensive care unit handoffs and implications for patient safety: a qualitative study.

Journal Article Am J Surg · October 2015 BACKGROUND: Operating room (OR) to the intensive care unit (ICU) handoffs are known sources of medical error, yet little is known about the relationship between process failures and patient harm. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with clinicians involved ... Full text Link to item Cite

Operating room to intensive care unit handoffs and the risks of patient harm.

Conference Surgery · September 2015 BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was to assess systems and processes involved in the operating room (OR) to intensive care unit (ICU) handoff in an attempt to understand the criticality of specific steps of the handoff. METHODS: We performed a failure mo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Early Postoperative Emergency Department Care of Abdominal Transplant Recipients.

Journal Article Transplantation · August 2015 BACKGROUND: Research on posttransplant care has predominantly focused on predictors of readmission with little attention to emergency department (ED) visits. The goal of this study was to describe early postoperative ED care of transplant recipients. METHO ... Full text Link to item Cite

The use of technology for urgent clinician to clinician communications: a systematic review of the literature.

Journal Article Int J Med Inform · February 2015 OBJECTIVE: Urgent clinician-clinician communications require routes of contact that are fast and dependable, and allow for the exchange of complex information. Despite the increasing focus on improving healthcare delivery systems over the past decade, few ... Full text Link to item Cite

Applying fault tree analysis to the prevention of wrong-site surgery.

Journal Article J Surg Res · January 2015 Wrong-site surgery (WSS) is a rare event that occurs to hundreds of patients each year. Despite national implementation of the Universal Protocol over the past decade, development of effective interventions remains a challenge. We performed a systematic re ... Full text Link to item Cite

Detection of medical errors in kidney transplantation: a pilot study comparing proactive clinician debriefings to a hospital-wide incident reporting system.

Journal Article Surgery · November 2014 BACKGROUND: Rates of medical errors and adverse events remain high for patients who undergo kidney transplantation; they are particularly vulnerable because of the complexity of their disease and the kidney transplantation procedure. Although institutional ... Full text Link to item Cite

A meta-analysis of complications following deceased donor liver transplant.

Journal Article Am J Surg · October 2014 BACKGROUND: Liver transplantation is a complex surgery associated with high rates of postoperative complications. While national outcomes data are available, national rates of most complications are unknown. DATA SOURCES: A systematic review of the literat ... Full text Link to item Cite

The effect of the Statewide Sharing variance on geographic disparity in kidney transplantation in the United States.

Journal Article Clin J Am Soc Nephrol · August 7, 2014 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Statewide Sharing variance to the national kidney allocation policy allocates kidneys not used within the procuring donor service area (DSA), first within the state, before the kidneys are offered regionally and nationally. T ... Full text Link to item Cite

The extent and predictors of waiting time geographic disparity in kidney transplantation in the United States.

Journal Article Transplantation · May 27, 2014 BACKGROUND: Waiting time to deceased donor kidney transplant varies greatly across the United States. This variation violates the final rule, a federal mandate, which demands geographic equity in organ allocation for transplantation. METHODS: Retrospective ... Full text Link to item Cite

Nosocomial infections within the first month of solid organ transplantation.

Journal Article Transpl Infect Dis · April 2014 Infections remain a common complication of solid organ transplantation. Early postoperative infections remain a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. Although significant effort has been made to understand ... Full text Link to item Cite

Staging chest computed tomography and positron emission tomography in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma: utility or futility?

Journal Article HPB (Oxford) · January 2014 OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to determine if routine staging chest computed tomography (CT) or positron emission tomography (PET) scanning alters the clinical management of patients with newly diagnosed pancreatic adenocarcinoma. METHODS: All new p ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Retrospective Study of Early Post-Transplant Nosocomial Infections

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2014 Cite

A Retrospective Study of Early Post-Transplant Nosocomial Infections

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2014 Cite

Seasonal Variation in Liver Transplantation

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2014 Cite

Seasonal Variation in Outcomes After Liver Transplantation.

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2014 Cite

Increased Risk of Extended Cold Ischemic Time in Nighttime Procurements

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2014 Cite

The role of technology in clinician-to-clinician communication.

Journal Article BMJ Qual Saf · December 2013 Incomplete, fragmented and poorly organised communications contribute to more than half the errors that lead to adverse and sentinel events. Meanwhile, communication software and devices with expanding capabilities are rapidly proliferating and being intro ... Full text Link to item Cite

A single urban center experience with adult pedestrians struck by motor vehicles.

Journal Article WMJ · June 2013 BACKGROUND: Pedestrian-vehicle crashes are a significant problem in public health. Understanding contributing factors within a specific community helps recognize and target key intervention points. METHODS: Trauma registry analysis included all of the pati ... Link to item Cite

What Is the Definition of Geographic Equity in Kidney Transplantation?

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2013 Cite

Safety Issues Identified by Proactive Liver Transplant Safety Debriefing.

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2013 Cite

Examining the Influence of Biopsy on Organ Utilization in a Single OPO

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2013 Cite

A pilot study to explore the safety of perioperative postpyloric enteral nutrition.

Journal Article Nutr Clin Pract · December 2012 BACKGROUND: The practice of holding enteral nutrition (EN) 8 hours prior to surgery is common. We hypothesized that it was safe to continue postpyloric EN, and we developed an institutional practice pattern to investigate our hypothesis. METHODS: Our pilot ... Full text Link to item Cite

No relief in sight: postgraduate training in pain management.

Journal Article Am J Hosp Palliat Care · 2008 This study investigated training in pain management in postgraduate medical education programs. A mail survey of program directors was conducted, evaluating the format of training in pain management and the self-assessed adequacy of the training. The respo ... Full text Link to item Cite