7:00 a.m.

Registration and Continental Breakfast — Exhibits Open

      8:45 a.m.

Welcome and Opening Remarks, Dixon B. Kaufman, MD, PhD, UW Health, and Sarah Chart, OptumHealth Education

      9:00 a.m.

Innovations in Kidney Transplantation, Arjang Djamali, MD, and Dixon B. Kaufman, MD, PhD

Advances in identifying and understanding the immunologic barriers in kidney transplantation are enhancing our ability to preserve the lifesaving potential of solid organ transplantation. This presentation will focus on overcoming immunological barriers in kidney transplantation and the new approaches to immunosuppression minimization.

Learning Objectives:

1. Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of calcineurin inhibitor (CNI)-free and prednisone-free immunosuppression in kidney transplant recipients.
2. Discuss the management and outcomes of kidney transplantation across ABO, human leukocyte antigen (HLA), and non-HLA barriers.
3. Describe the role of desensitization in the current era of kidney transplantation.
4. Recognize the need for improved long-term outcomes after transplantation across immunological barriers.

10:00 a.m.

Break — Exhibits Open

10:15 a.m.

Expanding Access to Liver Transplantation for Patients with Low MELD Scores, Luis Fernandez, MD; Tricia Blum, Living-Liver Donor; and Tawny Holtz, Living-Liver-Donor Recipient

Successful liver transplantation has led to an increased demand for donors even as the organ shortage remains unchanged. And the waiting list for liver transplants is continually changing as the most severe patients are always being placed at the top of the list, resulting in patients with less-severe disease to have a significant wait time. This presentation will focus on expanding access to the donor pool for these patients with a low MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) from underutilized resources — such as living donors and donation after cardio-circulatory determination of death (DCDD) — to provide an opportunity for these patients to be transplanted before becoming seriously ill.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explain the advantages of live-donor liver transplantation and associated outcomes in comparison to deceased donor transplantation.
2. Discuss the rationale for expanding the pediatric-donor pool from living donors and review the long-term outcomes.
3. Describe how to safely expand the donor pool using livers from DCDD.

11:15 a.m.

Expanding the Limits of Liver Transplant Candidacy, John Rice, MD

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a common cause of cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may complicate alcoholic cirrhosis. This presentation will focus on changes in liver-transplant-candidate-selection criteria for HCC and ALD.

Learning Objectives:

1. Review the strategy of “ablate and wait” in selecting patients for liver transplantation for HCC outside of traditional Milan criteria.
2. Identify changes to the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) point allocation for patients with HCC.
3. Summarize the medical evidence for six-month sobriety and long-term risk of alcohol relapse after transplantation.
4. Discuss the evidence supporting rescue transplantation in selected patients with alcoholic hepatitis and short-term sobriety.

12:15 p.m.

Lunch (provided) — Exhibits Open

1:15 p.m.

New Horizons in Living-Donor Kidney Transplantation, Didier Mandelbrot, MD; Josh Mezrich, MD; and Jill Dillon, Living-Kidney Donor

The benefits of a living-donor kidney are important for all patients on a kidney transplant wait list. Currently, patients seeking a kidney transplant have more options to consider. This presentation will include living-donor transplant updates, including paired-exchange options, surgical techniques, outcomes and innovations.

Learning Objectives:

1. Outline current options for paired kidney exchange, including internal program exchanges, external registries and compatible share.
2. Discuss current laparoscopic and robotic surgical trends in donor surgery.
3. Describe current trends in kidney transplant and living-donor candidacy and outcomes.
4. Summarize innovative trends in living-donor transplant patient care.

2:15 p.m.

Break — Exhibits Open

2:30 p.m.

Pancreas Transplantation: Expanding Indications and Current Outcomes, Jon S. Odorico, MD, and Thom Nustad, Pancreas Recipient

Successful pancreas transplantation has demonstrated to be efficacious in significantly improving the quality of life for people with diabetes. This presentation will focus on how indications for pancreas transplantation are broadening to include type II- and surgical diabetes as results continue to improve.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss the varying expanded indications for pancreas transplantation in uremic and nonuremic situations, as well as the outcomes under these conditions.
2. Describe the history of the field of pancreas transplantation.
3. State current trends in pancreas transplantation.

3:30–4:30 p.m.

Promising Avenues in Clinical Tolerance Induction in Kidney Transplantation, Dixon B. Kaufman, MD, PhD, and Peiman Hematti, MD

Allograft rejection is a major barrier to transplantation, therefore, a major goal in transplantation is the induction of tolerance. The possibility of one day being able to completely eliminate the need for chronic immunosuppression in kidney transplant recipients is being successfully explored in several pilot studies in the United States. This session will focus on current research and some of the early results in clinical tolerance induction in kidney transplantation.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss the methodology of inducing immunological tolerance.
2. Describe the transplant-recipient populations that are appropriate candidates for tolerance induction.
3. Explore the development of future multicenter trials in clinical tolerance induction for kidney transplantation.

4:30 p.m.

Shuttle service to UW Health Sciences Learning Center

5:00–7:00 p.m.

All Things Wisconsin Reception and University Hospital Tours >Learn more

You are invited to join us at the All Things Wisconsin reception, during which you’ll have an opportunity to enjoy a tour of University Hospital. Shuttle service between Monona Terrace and UW Health Sciences Learning Center is available.

Forty-five-minute tours will include stops at the UW Health Transplant Clinic, the acuity-adaptable cardiopulmonary transplant inpatient unit, the hematopoietic stem cell laboratory, and the state-of-the-art UW Health Simulation Center, where you’ll learn about an innovative new donor-consent simulation that is changing the way clinicians serve organ donors and their families.
 

7:30 a.m.

Registration and Continental Breakfast — Exhibits Open

8:30 a.m.

Opening Remarks

8:45 a.m.

Organ Preservation: Past, Present and Future, James Anderson, ST

Organ preservation has advanced considerably, but continued research is necessary to improve the success of transplantation. During this session, organ-preservation solutions, techniques and device usage will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

1. Review the history of organ preservation at UW Health and nationally.
2. Describe advancements in organ-preservation methods and techniques.
3. Discuss the research and future trends in organ preservation.

9:45 a.m.

Break — Exhibits Open

10:00 a.m.

Updates in Lung Transplantation, Richard Cornwell, MD; Nilto De Oliveira, MD; and Linda Dawson, Lung Recipient

Lung transplantation is an accepted modality of treatment for advanced-stage lung disease. This presentation will focus on indications and outcomes for lung transplantation.

Learning Objectives:

1. Outline advanced-lung-disease therapies and indications for lung transplantation.
2. Discuss the criteria for appropriate referral of potential lung transplant candidates to a lung transplant center.
3. Review the recently updated International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation guidelines with a focus on general indications and contraindications, as well as disease-specific guidelines.
4. Summarize outcomes and current trends in lung transplantation.

11:15 a.m.

Alpha/Beta Depletion in Haploidentical Donors to Reduce Graft-Versus-Host Disease, Vaishalee Kenkre, MD; Walter Longo, MD; Mitchel Viren, Allogeneic Haploidentical Related Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient; and Anthony Viren, Father to Recipient/Bone Marrow Donor

Haploidentical stem cell transplantation is a valid approach for patients at high risk of disease progression without human-leukocyte-antigen- (HLA)-matched donors. This session will summarize background literature in the field of manipulating peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) products from related donors who match at least five out of 10 of HLAs with the intended recipient. There will also be a discussion on an exciting new clinical trial at UW utilizing this technology to treat patients with relapsed/refractory lymphomas with allogeneic PBSC transplant, with the goals of preserving engraftment, reducing the risk for graft-vs.-host disease and maximizing the graft-vs.-lymphoma effect.

Learning Objectives:

1. State the purpose of alpha/beta depletion in haploidentical donors.
2. List at least one advantage to using a haploidentical family member as a donor.
3. Describe how this trial makes allogeneic transplant available to a group of patients previously considered ineligible for transplant.

12:30 p.m.

Lunch (provided) — Exhibits Open

1:30 p.m.

End-Stage Heart Failure: Drugs, Devices or a New Heart? Lucian Lozonschi, MD, and Ravi Dhingra, MD, MPH

Despite advances in pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies, the number of people affected by heart failure continues to grow. During this presentation, current innovations for improving heart-failure-patient and transplant-patient care will be addressed.

Learning Objectives:

1. List all available advanced-heart-failure therapies, optimization of heart-failure medications, and indications for left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) and/or cardiac transplant.
2. Recognize eligibility, indications and contraindications for listing a severely advanced-heart-failure patient on the heart-transplant waiting list.
3. Discuss destination therapy LVAD support and its role in the treatment of advanced heart failure.
4. Compare outcomes between LVADs and heart transplantation.

2:30 p.m.

Break — Exhibits Open

2:45 p.m.

A Case from the Heart, Lucian Lozonschi, MD; Maryl Johnson, MD, FACC; Veronica Lawrence, RN, BSN, CPTC, UW Organ and Tissue Donation; Walt Goodman, Heart Recipient; and Meredith Leigh, Donor Mom

This case presentation will include participation from the transplant team, the procurement team, a donor family and a transplant recipient.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the interconnectedness of the organ donation and transplant processes.
2. State the contribution each team member makes to the donation-and-transplantation process.
3. Discuss the amazing gift of life made possible through organ donation and transplantation.

3:45 p.m.

Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD): Effective Organ Procurement Organization and Transplant Program Relationship, Tony D'Alessandro, MD

The main factor limiting organ donation is the availability of suitable donors and organs. DCD has made an impact on the widening gap between demand for and supply of donor organs. This presentation will focus on DCD success at UW and nationally, as well as trends for its future use.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss the history of DCD.
2. Outline current trends and practices in DCD donation.
3. State the importance of the transplant program and organ procurement organization’s relationship in having a successful DCD program.
4. Review future trends in DCD.

4:45 p.m.

Adjourn