ERGOT

January 11-14 was the 18^th annual American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) Winter Symposium in Miami, FL. Over 30 ERGOT members had the opportunity to present our work in the poster exhibition, soapbox and oral abstract presentations, and panel discussions.

On Thursday, January 11, Dr. Jackie Garonzik-Wang highlighted newsworthy events in transplantation during 2017 in her talk Hot Topics in Kidney Transplantation.

On Friday, January 12, Mary Grace Bowring  presented Drs. Niraj Desai and Christine Durand‘s work: Exploring Transplants of HCV-Infected Kidneys for HCV-uninfected Recipients Using Direct-acting Antivirals in the first oral abstract session.

Following the Oral Abstract Session, our director Dr. Dorry Segev presented our group’s work evaluating quality metrics for use in transplantation, which was funded by a grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to evaluate and explore alternative ways to measure performance in the current transplant system. After his talk, he participated in a panel discussion “Saving More Lives: What’s the Right Metric?” with Drs. Jesse Schold and Sumit Mohan.

On Friday evening, ERGOT trainees presented our group’s work in 36 posters at the ASTS poster session. Out of ten awarded, three of our trainees, Christine Haugen MD, Michal Mankowski MS, and Sharon Weeks MD, received Poster of Distinction Awards for their work.

On Saturday, January 13, Sharon Weeks presented her work with Dr. Andrew Cameron on outcomes following early liver transplantation for patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis in the second Oral Abstract Session. Later that evening, we enjoyed delicious food at the Winter Symposium Dinner and a dance party DJ’d by Dorry himself.

On Sunday morning, Michal Mankowski gave a soapbox presentation, a short proposal to save more lives through transplantation, on behalf of Sommer Gentry: Solutions to Save More Lives Through Transplantation.

Thank you so much to ASTS for hosting another awesome Winter Symposium. See you next year!