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HHS APPOINTS MEMBERS OF ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON
ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION
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| HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced the appointment of 20 members
to the Secretary's new Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation. The
committee will advise the Secretary on all aspects of organ procurement,
allocation and transplantation, including independent review and advice on
organ allocation policies developed by the nation's transplantation network.
"This committee is a new mechanism for providing independent advice for the
Secretary of HHS in reviewing and approving transplant policies," said
Secretary Shalala. "The committee will provide for expert input from those
most closely involved in the transplant sector, including transplant surgeons
and physicians, representatives of donors and recipients, and others."
The advisory committee was created in the Organ Procurement and
Transplantation Network final rule of 1999 and recommended by the Institute of
Medicine Report to Congress in 1998. It will be chaired by Nancy L. Ascher,
M.D., Ph.D., liver transplant surgeon and professor at the Department of
Surgery, University of California at San Francisco. The committee is expected
to meet three times a year. Ten of the members are transplant surgeons and
physicians. Other transplant experts in the fields of biostatistics,
bioethics and law as well as organ donor and recipient representatives, are
also members.
National transplantation policies are developed by the OPTN for approval by
HHS. Under regulations that took effect March 16, 2000, HHS made it clear
that organ transplantation policies will continue, as before, to be developed
by the transplant community through the OPTN. HHS review and approval are
needed to make these policies binding on OPTN members. Under the regulations,
the advisory committee is to examine the OPTN's proposed policies and make
recommendations to the HHS Secretary before final HHS action is taken.
Last year, the OPTN developed proposals to better characterize the medical
condition of patients waiting for a liver transplant. The new advisory
committee will review these proposals as well as future proposed policies. In
addition, on an on-going basis, the committee will review the OPTN's system of
collecting, disseminating and ensuring the validity, accuracy, timeliness and
usefulness of data. Other scientific, medical, public health, ethical, legal,
coverage and financing and socioeconomic issues, as well as national and
international policy and developments relevant to transplantation, will also
be considered by the committee.
Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation
Nancy L. Ascher, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Department of Surgery, University of
California at San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.
Gail Agrawal, J.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor of Law at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Denise Y. Alveranga, M.D., Lifelink Transplant Institute, Tampa, Fla.
Dan W. Brock, Ph.D., Professor, Brown University, Providence, R.I.
Margaret B. Coolican, M.S., R.N., C.D.E., Donor Family Services Coordinator,
NorthEast Organ Procurement Organization, Hartford, Conn.
Paige Cottigham-Streater, B.A., J.D., Executive Director, The Mansfield Center
for Pacific Affairs, Washington, D.C.
Francis L. Delmonico, M.D., Professor of Surgery, Massachusetts General
Hospital, Boston, Mass.
Robert D. Gibbons, Ph.D., Director, Center for Health Statistics, Professor of
Biostatistics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
Bartley P. Griffith, M.D., Vice Chair, Department of Surgery, University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pa.
William Harmon, M.D., Nephrologist, Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass.
J. Harold Helderman, M.D., F.A.C.P., Medical Director, Renal Transplantation,
Vanderbilt Transplant Center, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology,
Vanderbilt University Medical School, Nashville, Tenn.
Lawrence G. Hunsicker, M.D., Medical Director of Organ Transplantation,
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa
Roger R. Luna, Jr., Area Director, Cardiopulmonary and Radiology Departments,
McAllen Medical Center, McAllen, Texas
Edgar Milford, M.D., Director of the Tissue Typing Laboratory, Brigham and
Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass.
Howard Nathan, M.P.H., President and CEO, Gift of Life Donor Program,
Philadelphia, Pa.
Mary Ann Palumbi, R.N., CCTC Senior Director, Allegheny General Hospital
Transplantation Services, Pittsburgh, Pa.
J. Thomas Rosenthal, M.D., Director and Provost, University of Los Angeles
Medical Group, Professor of Urology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles,
Calif.
Flora Solarz, B.A., M.P.S., Senior Management Consultant, New York City Health
and Hospitals Corporation, New York, N.Y.
Donald M. Stablein, Ph.D., President/Biostatistician, EMMES Corporation,
Potomac, Md.
James B. Young, M.D., Head, Section of Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant
Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio
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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are
available at www.hhs.gov/news.
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