AOPO UPDATE - SUMMER 2007
AOPO OUTGOING PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS
TRACY SCHMIDT
(as delivered on June 13, 2007 at the AOPO Annual Meeting)
Good Morning.
Thank you, Jim Carroll, for giving us a perspective related to the theme or our annual meeting – New Frontiers. Also, thank you to Amy Iverson and Paul Sodders and your committee for planning this exciting conference.
This past year has seen a number of positive changes. Before I review these,
I want to thank the outgoing members of the AOPO Executive Committee—Tom
Beyersdorf, Monica Johnson-Tomanka, and Marlon Levy. I also would like to thank
Paul Schwab and the AOPO staff and all the many volunteers from OPOs who continue
to make our association and its contributions special. I also want to thank
the leadership team at Intermountain Donor Services, who took on many extra
responsibilities during my mental and physical absences, and especially acknowledge
and express my appreciation for the support of my wife Luanne and family.
Last year I mentioned eight areas of change and opportunities for the coming
year.
Along with these eight areas of change, this past year has changed me on a personal level. Last fall I attended a Collaborative, participated, and was rewarded with the book, “Escape Fire” by Donald Berwick, the President of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. This book, containing eleven of his compelling speeches, energized and stretched my thinking. The book includes innovations and ideas from a number of surprising sources—a young girl’s soccer team; a sinking ship in Sweden in 1628; James Cook, the British Navy Captain and the eating of sauerkraut; NASA safety standards; and the 1948 Mann Gulch tragedy in which 13 firefighters were trapped in a wildfire on a Montana hillside.
The most compelling to me was his speech in 2002 entitled “Plenty”
and how it related to our industry. Let me read directly from portions of this
speech.
“Our work together on improvement must now become a movement—has become a movement. We want to say we have enough momentum now to get the job done. And people in movements need to believe something together. Not something rigid, but something sustaining. You know what a movement needs? It needs optimism.
“An assumption of abundance.” Now wouldn’t that be nice?
This year my wife introduced me to the work of Amory Lovins, one of the leading
thinkers in the environmental movement. Lovins is a lunatic. He believes in
abundance when most people around him can see only scarcity.
Lovins and his coauthors show a diagram of a large rectangle with a small circle
inside it. Suppose I tell you that one of these—the circle or the rectangle—is
the human economy—all of it—and the other is the environment. But
I don’t tell you which is which. So, which is which?
Everybody gives the same answer. It’s obvious. The economy sits inside
the environment, not the other way around.
In fact, it is the environment that is the main supplier to the economy. It
allows the economy to exist.
Now, Lovins and his coauthors call their book Natural Capitalism. Classical
capitalism recognizes three kinds of resources for the economy of production:
human capital, financial capital, and manufactured capital (infrastructure,
machines, and so on). But Lovins and his coauthors agree that there is a fourth
input; they call it natural capital. They argue that the stuff nature supplies
to the economy dwarfs the other three kinds of resources.
They analyze the automobile. The purpose of a car, let’s say, is to move
people from one place to another. If we say that a car consumes one hundred
units of energy, converting it into heat, light, and changes in momentum, how
many of those units are actually getting the job done—moving human beings?
The answer is one. When a car burns fuel, 80 percent of the energy is lost in
heat; only 20 percent turns the wheels. Ninety-five percent of the weight the
wheels move is the car, only five percent is the driver. Five percent of 20
percent is one percent. The rest of the energy conversion is waste—99
percent is waste.
So why don’t we see it that way? Lovins and his coauthors say we don’t
see the value of natural capital because we attribute it to a particular price:
zero. We don’t’ count it, so we don’t know it. It is inexhaustible,
anyway, isn’t it? There’s no charge.
Let’s take a look again at Lovins’ diagram: a small circle inside
a big rectangle. Suppose I tell you that the circle is health care. What is
the “natural capital” of health care—important, maybe immense,
essential, looming, there before us and after we are gone, crucial, but maybe,
like air and water, unpriced? Invaluable but unvalued? Could that be what Paul
Batalden means by abundance?
You see, if we could find the abundance, we could ask the same questions that
Lovins and his coauthors ask: What do we waste? What comes to us in such plenty
that we cannot see it? That we make its apparent price zero? And in not seeing
it and not valuing it, is it possible that, as with clean air and good soil,
we slowly, insidiously, and unconsciously deplete it? Starving for resources,
is it possible that we throw away the biggest resources we have?
A movement would think differently. A movement might say, “Look everybody.
Look what we found. Plenty.” We are going to have to look pretty hard
in health care for a sense of plenty. We’re so far down the road of an
assumption of scarcity. Our lobbyists lobby in Washington and in the state houses
for more and more. Our professionals feel drained by demands on their time and
energy. Our patients and their advocates stand guard lest something be withheld.
The movie John Q is a box office smash.”
Dr. Berwick then goes on to examine four natural resources that are in abundant supply in health care. You will have to read his book for his four fascinating answers.
The questions I have for you are: What does our movement of organ donation have as natural/unseen resources that provide abundance and plenty? This past year has started to open my eyes to this hidden abundance and optimism that we can discover more.
Let me give you a few examples of what we are finding today.
1. Conversion rates of 75% or greater in 13 DSAs in 2006. Four of these 80%
or greater.
2. Nearly 1400 organs transplanted from DCD donors in 2006 – including
pancreas, lungs, heart - up significantly from about 550 in 2003.
3. Four DSAs recovering and transplanting at least 3.5 organs per donor this
past year.
What about the future?
1. Kidneys represent a majority of our waiting list. There are at least 100-fold
more people in the United States willing to donate a kidney than those who need
a kidney. Thousands of these could be facilitated through a coordinated regional
or national kidney paired exchange program. Thousands of more could be facilitated
through Good Samaritan programs.
2. The process of utilizing retrospective data to best match donor characteristics
with recipient characteristics to maximize life years. The steps UNOS is making
in this area, although challenging, is finding more abundance in life years
and avoiding re-transplants.
3. Technology –Transportation and preservation of organs has been a limiting
factor. Emerging technology should soon eliminate this barrier.
4. The minds and imagination of you in the audience today. Future abundance is in this room.
This is an exciting time to be involved in donation and transplantation. Abundance can be found if we ask the right questions and look in the right areas. Let’s not get stuck like the railroad industry a hundred years ago, who said they were in the railroad business instead of the transportation business, as trucking and airline transportation grew around them.
Thank you for your support and for allowing me the privilege of serving as your President. May this coming year be a time you discover more plenty and abundance in your professional and personal life.
AOPO INCOMING PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS
TOM MONE
(as delivered on June 14, 2007 at the AOPO Annual Meeting)
Many Voices, One Mission
Thank you, it is my great pleasure to stand here today and try to relieve my friend Tracy of the load he has been carrying this past year as he has helped us take responsibility for developing and maintaining the public's trust in donation and has strengthened AOPO itself through its committee structure, participation, and a vigorous push for universal accreditation. For all of that and more, we owe Tracy our thanks.
We also owe a huge Thank You to the AOPO staff of Paul, Melissa, Carol, Mark and Lisa for shepherding us and keeping our focus on AOPO’s work when local needs distracted us. Without them we would be a sorry lot!
I, of course, need to thank all of the staff at OneLegacy for making me proud of their work and their caring every single day. It makes it easier for me to step away a bit this year knowing our work is in very good hands. And to every one of you who have helped me these past seven years by sharing your ideas, advice, history, and feedback, Thank You. Special thanks also goes out to the many OPOs that have invited me and our accreditation survey teams in to observe, comment, and most of all blatantly steal the very best ideas you have demonstrated to help families donate life. …and really, isn’t this the very best of AOPO…that we have created a culture of sharing and mutual support.
And while there are many other people that I could and should thank individually, I won’t even try because we would be here all day, but…there is one person who is not here that I absolutely must recognize: Phyllis Weber. Phyllis was there at the start of this field and this organization. She worked tirelessly and creatively from that first day, and now Phyllis is leaving us to our own devices. But I for one know that Phyllis’s commitment, creativity and moral compass will remain an influence on AOPO as they have been on me…… Last month, the Donate Life California Board of Directors held a retirement party for Phyllis (at a baseball game, of course) and, I shared with her that throughout my seven years at OneLegacy, when looking for ways to improve our performance, every time I asked myself one question: “What would Phyllis do?” To which Phyllis answered, “And then you’d go and do what you wanted anyway!” But, in reality, Phyllis’s perspective always mattered to me, will always matter to me, and has and will continue to guide me and us to the best and right solution to most every event and opportunity that comes our way. Thank you, Phyllis.
Recalling Phyllis’s accomplishments and legacy is a good reminder of the value of looking at where we’ve been and what we’ve accomplished as AOPO, an organization that was conceived to provide institutional support and a strong, usually unified voice to common concerns affecting the business of organ procurement. And looking back, we have a good deal to be proud of…. Under Paul Schwab’s leadership, we have developed a strong Accreditation and Standards program, we have built a structure of volunteer-based committees and councils that share the tools of management, leadership, finance, and operations needed to ensure our viability as 58 independent entities with a common mission. And just these past few months, Paul recommended and the Executive Committee OK’d building formal cross-functional roles between our committees and councils (Finance, HR, PR, Legislative, etc.) and the newer, issue-oriented Diversity and Multi-Cultural committee (founded by Dennis Heinrich and now an integral part of AOPO). I look forward to being actively involved in implementing these infrastructure changes over the coming year and the robust enhancement of the tools and resources that our committees provide our membership.
Of course, most critically and valuably we have re-written the legislative rules of the road that govern our work through skillfully nurtured relations with Congress (thank you Joe and Paul) and even more expertly managed negotiations with our regulators. Just this past year AOPO-led initiatives have resulted in substantive and beneficial changes in the UAGA that is now wending its way through the states with some 14 passed to-date. We have successfully established a prospective application of CMS payment rules, an area that requires continued work and will be a focus of my and our energies this coming year.
However, there is no doubt that the rewriting of our fundamental certification rules, which took more than 5 years of focus and dedication of AOPO’s resources, was the ultimate accomplishment of AOPO as an infrastructure-focused trade association. This effort yielded a breaking down of the walls of protectionism and secrecy between neighboring OPOs, who feared for their futures every two years, and removed an undue power that resided in transplant centers that might choose to de-stabilize OPO balance to move hospitals and counties into their catchment areas. We should never underestimate how important this structural change was in enabling the full expression of the critical roles and equality of the “three estates” that the Collaborative was able to capitalize upon to the benefit of donor families and recipients. This was probably the ultimate measure of the value and power of a trade association to assist its membership and more importantly….. their common mission.
Of course, the inspiration, the organization and the leadership to take advantage of our legislative and regulatory work came not from AOPO, but rather from HRSA in the form of the Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative. Not that OPO staff were not among the leaders; we were there in large numbers and great in influence. However, the creation of such an initiative was outside the historically-determined scope of AOPO and our traditional focus on supporting the business and regulatory environment in which we work.
The limitations of AOPO’s core role as a trade association reveal themselves in other ways as well. For example, when the public or the media raise questions about donation-related issues, more often than not, they go to UNOS, occasionally Donate Life America, or NKF, or ALF, or a local transplant center, and less often than they should, the local OPO. And most of the time, these organizations do a credible job, but one that is quite reasonably colored by their own distinct purposes.
Coming from a state that has 12% of the population, 20% of the wait list, and seemingly 70% of the news media focus on transplantation, I believe (just like Tracy before me) that there is no issue more important to us than ensuring and growing the public's trust in the safety and ethical foundation of our work…this is the first step to getting the "Yes" from a donor or a donor family....and it is key to our purpose. Yet, we have not positioned AOPO to speak to that purpose when it matters most.
Additionally, just this past year a very well-intended goal of clarifying the roles and skill sets needed by our Family Care Coordinators ran into a snag as certification standards for this role developed by NATCO and the ABTC, were reviewed by the AOPO Executive Committee, and were found to be out of sync with the needs of AOPO leadership. Clarifying these needs and differences is a job for another time, but the circumstance is illustrative: while OPO staff participate in and sometimes take leadership roles in both NATCO and ABTC, both organization memberships are substantially made up of a mix of procurement and recipient transplant coordinators–great, hard-working people, but with different jobs and different perspectives on the work of donation. So, just yesterday, the Executive Committee and I were very pleased to be asked to support an AOPO-led process to define the needs of the position and requirements of certification. As an Executive Committee, AOPO spoke up and offered feedback, and our AOPO colleagues have taken ownership of a job that is uniquely ours. But this example begs the question: where was AOPO’s voice when the idea was germinating in those well-meaning, but external organizations? Certainly, there were OPO staff involved, but the AOPO had to invite itself, ourselves to the table late in the process. Now, there is no bad guy here, we were probably well engaged in our regulatory efforts, but with much of those behind us, this example begs the question: should we be forging closer ties with and influencing the product of our associated organizations in donation and transplantation?
One more example that I know is a challenge for Paul and the AOPO staff is that UNOS and CMS do not routinely notify AOPO of policy changes, meetings, or actions because AOPO is not a “regulated agency” or “member”. Thus, AOPO as an organization is often dependent upon its membership to inform it of events and issues that we would often best respond to as a group rather than individually. Would AOPO be better able to assist its members and donation if engaged in debates from the beginning?
I share these examples to suggest that we, AOPO, may have arrived at a time in our history in which we have matured. While we have done an extraordinary job developing our infrastructure as agencies and as a trade organization, we are seeing our mission, our passion, and our obligations being guided, interpreted, and modified by others.
I share it also at a time when more than one quarter of the executive leadership of AOPO will find themselves in Phyllis Weber’s position: able and ready to retire within the next 5 years or so. With these founders potentially moving on, what vision, what self-perception, what goals will guide AOPO as an organization?
Do we want to focus on operational, legislative and regulatory concerns?
Do we want to speak for donor families?
Do we want to be the “go-to” agency for donation-related media issues?
Do we want AOPO, and not just OPO employees, to have a formal relationship with our cohort organizations such as UNOS, NATCO, ABTC, AST, ASTS, NKF, etc.?
Should we lead the development of “the science of donation” (a concept coined by AOPO) or leave it to our transplant and academic partners to lead us?
Does living donation policy and practice affect our work and if so, should we define a role or position for AOPO?
Do we want to take formal positions and publish statements on the wide and widening variety of issues affecting donation, much like our friends at NAME have done with organ donation?
Should AOPO be the “hub” of all these many alphabet soup agencies on all matters related to donation? And if so, how?
I suspect that we will find all of these possibilities have merit, but some may in fact not be achievable, and those that are achievable will vary in priority. To help us decide what we want to be as we have matured as an organization and a field, I have asked a group of 12 of the newer AOPO Executive Directors to participate in a Future Directions Task Force. They are the right group to lead this effort because they are the leaders who will be living in and guiding OPOs and AOPO into that future.
I have also asked this group to start by reviewing and improving the list of questions that I have just shared with you. Then they will seek input from each of you, our members, starting with the many OPO leaders who work very hard in the field but have not been active in AOPO activities, but undoubtedly have invaluable contributions to charting our future. They will also poll our medical advisors, councils, committees, and sponsors. Then, as a vision and directions for the future emerge, the task force will share them with our informal but invaluable Past Presidents group to seek the operational and political wisdom they have earned in that role and in their many years in the field.
6 months ago, when I was elected to this office, I spoke in my letter to the membership about the importance of hearing every voice in AOPO. This Future Directions effort is a chance for every AOPO member to share a unique perspective and vision of the future and AOPO’s role in defining it. Ideally we will find a common voice that will speak with the strength of all of us as one organization, one group of people charged with inspiring and enabling people to Donate Life.
Over the next year, this process will enable AOPO to build on our many accomplishments and enable us to be recognized for the wealth of knowledge, compassion, and national and international leadership that I know and you know sits in this room today.
But recognition of our unique role is no end in itself. Rather, it is a tool to broaden our audience, to increase our stature, to unify our efforts, and to give credibility and substance to our message….. that donation is the right thing to do, and not just because it saves lives, but because it renews life for recipients, for donor families, and for the communities, and world we all share.
Thank you, in advance, for offering your voice to build on AOPO’s strong foundations and create a universally-recognized AOPO that shares the caring and the passion of each and every one of you…. to help every family see all of the good that comes from the decision to Donate Life.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS INITIATIVE TASK FORCE
As noted in his Presidential Address (provided above), Tom Mone assembled a Future Directions Task Force. Chaired by Tim Brown, the Task Force members include Charlie Alexander, Danielle Cornell, Jean Davis, Sue Dunn, Kent Holloway, Jill Maxfield, Kevin Myer, Kevin O’ Connor, Jeff Orlowski, Susan Stuart, and Boyd Ward. Tom is also a member of the group, with Paul Schwab serving as lead staff person. As communications are occurring over the summer months, a meeting of the group has been scheduled for the latter part of August.
24th ANNUAL AOPO MEETING, Fairmont Dallas Hotel, June 12 – 15, 2007
AOPO held its 24th Annual Meeting, June12 – 15, 2007, in Dallas, TX. It was attended by over 600 individuals, and had an exhibit filled with 62 vendors. The meeting opened with the insights of futurist, trends and innovation expert, James Carroll, exploring the rapid pace of the medical, scientific, legal, research, business and technology worlds, while challenging the field of organ and tissue procurement to keep the pace. Other opening day features included a plenary session on Clinical, Cultural and Leadership Approaches to Successful Integration of Donor Designation, presented by David Bosch (Gift of Hope), John Green (Gift of Life Donor Program), Kent Holloway (Lifeline of Ohio), Amy Iveson (Donor Alliance), and Naomi Bowman (LifeSource). There were also numerous “Hot Topics and Best Practices,” AOPO work group business meetings, the Poster Display, and the Exhibit Hall. The AOPO President’s Reception, as well as the annual Golf Tournament were sponsored by Southwest Transplant Alliance, Texas Organ Sharing Alliance, and LifeGift Organ Donation Center. Hearty thanks to those OPOs for all their support during the meeting.
Plenary sessions on Thursday put the spotlight on several regulatory issues involving UNOS and CMS. Dr. Sue McDiarmid, then-President of OPTN/UNOS, discussed many technology and policy advances taking place to keep the field current. Then, standing in for Dr. Barry Straube, Chief Medical Officer and Director of the CMS Office of Clinical Standards and Quality, Jeannie Miller presented an update on the OPO Regulations and Interpretive Guidelines.
The afternoon had a wide range of timely and informative concurrent sessions on topics as diverse as creating a service-driven culture in your OPO, motivating donor families to move into community activity roles, Phase II Implementation of DonorNet 2007, and an international perspective on organ donation and transplantation from Japan. A second series of concurrent sessions followed, including collaborative efforts between OPO hospital development and public relations staffs, how to evaluate potential tissue processing and research partners, an update on CMS transplant center regulations and guidelines, and a showcase of PDSA’s from the AOPO Quality Council.
The 3rd Annual Donor Management Workshop was held Thursday afternoon. The highly successful series this year was entitled “Bugs and Poison: Donor Management in the High Risk Donor,” and focused on infectious diseases in the donor population. The third grouping of concurrent sessions included sessions on tissue recovery and the public trust, workgroups on DCD and donor families, and hospital development initiatives. The final series of concurrent sessions included an assessment of OPO Call Centers, a new methodology for staff training programs (confidence-based training), security concerns for OPO information technology, and an update on enactment of the Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.
The final day included an early-riser session glimpse of the 2008 Donate Life
Rose Parade. The plenary session began with a brief memorial session in honor
of the friends and colleagues in the donation and transplantation field who
had recently passed away. The 2nd Annual AOPO Town Meeting wrapped up the program.
The topic, “Is Non-Controlled DCD the Untapped Resource for Those on the
Waiting List?” generated a lot of discussion, both from the renowned panel
and the audience. An introduction and background on the session was presented
by Eric Grossman, MD, and the session moderator/storyteller, Michael Fee, Esq.
They were joined by panelists David DeStefano (WRTC), James DuBois, PhD, DSc,
(St. Louis University Center for Health Care Ethics), Francis Delmonico, MD
(Medical Director, New England Organ Bank, Director of Medical Affairs for The
Transplantation Society), Thomas W. Mayo, JD (University of Texas Southwestern
Medical School, Southern Methodist University Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility),
Velma Scantlebury, MD, Chief of Transplantation at University of South Alabama),
Jim Warren (editor, Transplant News), and David Zygun, MD (University of Calgary
Departments of Critical Care Medicine, Clinical Neurosciences and Community
Health Sciences).
The AOPO Annual Awards were presented on June 14, 2007 in Dallas, Texas at the AOPO 24th Annual Meeting.
2007 CRYOLIFE/AOPO ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The CryoLife/AOPO Achievement Award is presented annually to an individual demonstrating significant professional and/or personal contributions to AOPO.
The 2007 recipient of the award was Bryan Stewart, Director of Communications at OneLegacy in Los Angeles, California. Bryan has served as the AOPO Public Relations/Public Education Council Chair for the past year, has led the Rose Parade Float initiative, been heavily involved in the Donor Designation Collaborative, and the Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry.
2007 SALLOP/AOPO EXCELLENCE IN LEADERSHIP AWARD
The Excellence in Leadership Award is presented annually to an individual employed by an OPO, demonstrating excellence in leadership through outstanding management achievements or innovative practices in the organ procurement field.
This year’s award was presented to Michael Hudson, Hospital Development Manager at Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency. As Director of the Hospital Development Department, he has instituted real-time response and education to the referral process which has increased early referrals and DCD referrals. He has instituted a Senior Leader Newsletter, dashboards, and Senior Leader Luncheons. All of these keep hospitals aware of their accomplishments and bring together clinical and administration champions to continue to work on saving more lives through donation. He has also recently been invited to join the Organ Donation and Transplantation Collaborative faculty.
2007 AOPO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S AWARD
This award is presented annually by the AOPO Executive Director as special recognition for excellence in assisting AOPO and the OPO community. Paul Schwab, Executive Director, presented two awards this year.
The honorees were Shelly Kurtz of the University of Iowa College of Law and Carlyle “Connie” Ring, Esq... Both recipients were instrumental in shaping the revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. Mr. Kurtz was the reporter for the revised UAGA Study Committee and Mr. Ring was the Chair of the Drafting Committee for the revised UAGA. Both are National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Law (NCCUSL) commissioners appointed by their states, Iowa and Virginia respectively.
2007 AOPO PRESIDENT’S AWARD
This award is presented annually by the AOPO President as special recognition for excellence in assisting AOPO and the OPO community. Tracy Schmidt, AOPO President, honored two award recipients this year.
Charlie Alexander, President and CEO of the The Living Legacy Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland received the award for his contributions to the community as Past President of NATCO, and his current membership on the UNOS Board of Directors. Charlie has emerged as a true leader of his colleagues and has volunteered untold number of hours to AOPO and the greater community.
Melissa Honohan, newly appointed Assistant Executive Director at the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations, was also honored by Tracy Schmidt. She was recognized for her leadership on the Public Trust in Tissue Recovery Workshop, the January Directors’ Workshop, and her work with many of AOPO’s Councils and work groups. She has taken the lead with many legislative priorities and organized annual Congressional Member visits for the Association.
2007 CRYSTAL HEART AWARD RECIPIENTS
The Crystal Heart Award recognizes national media, both print and broadcast, efforts that factually report on the topic of organ and tissue donation and transplantation. The Award is presented by the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) and Donate Life America. The Crystal Heart Award has been made possible for the past eight years through a generous grant from the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (MTF).
Men’s Health was recognized for the exceptional article written by William G. Phillips, “My Father’s Life [After Death]”. Mr. Phillips accepted the award on behalf of Men’s Health at the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations’ Annual Meeting. His father was the subject of his powerfully written article that ran in December 2006.
The article shares the story of Bill Phillips’ journey as he talks about his father’s death, his family’s courageous act of saying yes to donation, his discoveries about organ donation and transplantation and how the gift of life made a difference in the lives of others. The story was superbly shared in a lengthy article that pulled from multiple interviews, background research and fact checking. Through his family’s gracious decision to donate and Bill’s strength to share his father’s story, countless other lives may have been saved – beyond even those who received his dad’s organs and tissues directly.
The broadcast media recipient of the 2007 Crystal Heart Award was presented to ABC, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for the program that aired in January 2007. The piece highlighted the amazing story of the Tipton-Smith family. The family suffered the loss of their home and then within months the loss of their 16 year old son, Ransom, who died in a fatal car accident. Ransom donated his organs upon his death and during this Extreme Makeover: Home Edition episode; the Tipton-Smith family met the recipient of Ransom’s heart – a 19 year old girl.
For the first time, there were three recipients of the newly minted Crystal Heart Silver Award. The recipients included: Univision; HBO: Inside the NFL; and NBC News: Sunday Today.
DO YOU SPEAK PORTAL-ESE?
The new AOPO portal site is now functioning for almost all AOPO committees and Councils. The portal is a collection of dynamic World Wide Web sites that provide personalized capabilities to group members and is designed to provide a variety of information from different sources and facilitate communication within and across AOPO workgroups, committees and councils.
The portal is at www.aopoportal.org and all OPO staff is welcome to join.
Each person is a member of one or a few portal groups and has access to most of the other portals. Once a person requests an account on the portal, they are given access to one or more areas on the portal site and from there, they can download user guides to help them use the portal, create Alerts to be notified when important activity happens on the portal and can use the search tool to find information, and a whole lot more.
So far, over 450 people have joined one or more of the 21 different portal groups that are functioning. Some groups have 100% of their members on the portal, while some have a lower participation rate. Some of the groups have been having active responsive discussions, which is one of the key tools on the portal.
For assistance in creating a user account or using the features of the portal, contact either your IT Department or Mark Paster, AOPO IT Officer (703-556-4242, ext. 207 or mpaster@aopo.org).
IMPORTANT DATA ANNOUNCEMENT
At the Annual AOPO meeting and later via email on July 3, Data and Information Committee Chair Kent Holloway announced to AOPO Monthly Profile Survey (MPS) Participants important changes in AOPO’s data collection efforts. Beginning with data for July 2007, the MPS will discontinue collecting organ recovery-related data but will continue to collect information on Medical Examiner denials. The change is designed to eliminate some duplicative data entry by OPOs who have been reporting organ recovery-related data to both AOPO and OPTN/UNOS. As of July 1, comprehensive, continuing organ data are now available to members on the AOPO Portal. At the same time, plans are underway to retool the MPS for data not currently collected from OPOs but of interest to the industry. Any questions can be directed to either Kent Holloway (kholloway@lifelineofohio.org) or to Mark Paster (mpaster@aopo.org).
UNIFORM ANATOMICAL GIFT ACT ENACTMENTS
Eighteen states have now enacted the revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA): Utah, Virginia, Idaho, South Dakota, Arkansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Kansas, Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota, Montana, Tennessee, Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, and most recently, Rhode Island. The act has been introduced and is in some stage of process in nine states and territories: California, New Jersey, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Virgin Islands and District of Columbia.
Anticipating that there will be additional introductions in the 2008 legislatures, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Law (NCCUSL) is ready to meet with representatives of the OPO community to discuss the introduction and enactment procedures. Please contact Michelle Clayton, mclayton@nccusl.org.
REPORT FROM THE STANDARDS AND ACCREDITATION COMMITTEE
We are pleased to report that there are currently 48 OPOs that have successfully completed the AOPO Accreditation Program (see list below). The three year roll-out of the QI Standards has ended, and effective June 1, 2007, these standards are an integral part of the accreditation survey process. The Committee will soon introduce accredited OPOs to the new Data and Information Technology Standards (these can be viewed by AOPO members on the AOPO Portal), as well as some revisions to the Hospital Development and the Administrative standards.
AOPO ACCREDITED OPOs * * EFFECTIVE JUNE 13, 2007
ARKANSAS REGIONAL ORGAN RECOVERY AGENCY
CALIFORNIA TRANSPLANT DONOR NETWORK
CAROLINA DONOR SERVICES
CENTER FOR DONATION AND TRANSPLANT
CENTER FOR ORGAN RECOVERY AND EDUCATION
DONOR ALLIANCE, INC.
DONOR NETWORK OF ARIZONA
GIFT OF HOPE ORGAN & TISSUE DONOR NETWORK
GIFT OF LIFE MICHIGAN
GIFT OF LIFE PENNSYLVANIA
GOLDEN STATE DONOR SERVICES
INDIANA ORGAN PROCUREMENT ORGANIZATION
INTERMOUNTAIN DONOR SERVICES
IOWA DONOR NETWORK
KENTUCKY ORGAN DONOR AFFILIATES
LIFEALLIANCE
LIFEBANC
LIFECENTER NORTHWEST
LIFECENTER ORGAN DONOR NETWORK
LIFECHOICE DONOR SERVICES
LIFECONNECTION OF OHIO
LIFEGIFT ORGAN DONATION CENTER
LIFELINE OF OHIO
LIFENET
LIFELINK OF FLORIDA
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BOOK REVIEW: A Clinician’s Guide to Donation
and Transplantation
Contributors:
Dianne LaPointe Rudow, DrNP, CCTC
Linda Ohler, RN, MSN, CCTC, FAAN
Teresa Shafer, RN, MSN, CPTC
Copyright © 2006 NATCO, The Organization for Transplant Professionals
Published 2006 by Applied Measurement Professionals, Inc., Lenexa, Kansas
917 pages
$185 U.S Dollars
A Clinician’s Guide to Donation and Transplantation is a tome of information which encompasses the entire scope of transplantation, from the beginning of the donation process through the transplantation of each organ or tissue and the care of the recipient after surgery. In a most interesting and entertaining introductory section, the authors and editors give a detailed history of not only the transplantation process but also the unsung heroes who shepherd that process along, the transplant and procurement coordinators.
Twenty years ago, as a nurse leaving the familiarity of an intensive care unit in Arlington, Virginia to join the Georgetown University Transplant program as an organ procurement coordinator, I had no idea of the world into which I was entering and the history that was being made. In A Clinician’s Guide to Donation and Transplantation, the reader is given more than just a glimpse into that world. Teresa Shafer shows us the development of transplantation by weaving the story of the growing profession of transplant coordination into the fabric of the account. What is compelling, and makes this book hard to put down despite its size and weight, is the inclusion of many of the dramatic moments that are part of the daily life of the coordinator. Stories and quotes from many of the pioneers of transplant coordination fill these pages. They are touching and personal and I found myself with tears and laughter. Bob Duckworth’s item, “Life on the Cutting Edge of Medicine or Why Your Spouse is Mad at You All the Time” fully explains the “mixed blessing” of the world of the transplant coordinator.
In Section 2 of the book, the list of chapter authors is an authentic list of pioneers in clinical transplant coordination. Each organ system is addressed thoroughly. Like most books on transplantation, there are chapters on immunology, infection, and pharmaceuticals. This compendium goes further by including long-term complications, women’s health issues, and the fundamentals of transplant administration.
Section 3 examines organ donation and procurement. Brain death is depicted in drawings, actual computerized tomography and angiography. The art of the request is examined. The intricacies of working with medical examiners are explained. In a nod to the current times, the Breakthrough Collaborative and the return to donation after cardiac death are rendered for deliberation.
A Clinician’s Guide to Donation and Transplantation is just that, a guide, and yet much more. For the novice coordinator this is THE comprehensive textbook to have. For the rest of us, this is the book we all have said should be written. True to our profession, one of us could not have written it alone. Like our lives and our work, it had to be coordinated by many experts. It has finally been done, and beautifully!
Peggy Schaeffer RN, CPTC
Nurse Manager
Hume-Lee Transplant Center
Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital
Richmond, Virginia
JOB POSTINGS
For the most up to date job posting, please visit: http://www.aopo.org/aopo/content/jobs/index.asp.
UPCOMING MEETINGS
August 12-15, 2007
NATCO
New York, NY
August 23, 2007
National Improvement Leaders’ Workshop
Indianapolis, IN
September 5 -7, 2007
ASMHTP
Philadelphia, PA
September 15-18, 2007
AATB Annual Meeting
Boston, MA
September 18-19, 2007
AOPO Tissue Council Meeting and Public Trust Initiative
To Register: http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=144445
Marriott Boston Copley Hotel
110 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02116
September 19-20, 2007
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Los Angeles, CA
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Atlanta, GA
October 8, 2007
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Nashville, TN
October 9-11, 2007
National Learning Congress
Nashville, TN
October 9-12, 2007
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Denver, CO 80202
November 11-14, 2007
2007 International Organ Donation Congress
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
856-642-4419