The Transplant Infectious Disease section has recently developed and approved by-laws to outline the objectives and operations of the association. With the development of these by-laws TID was in the position to call upon our membership to put forward individuals for nomination to our Council. Upon the completion of the call for nominations a list of highly qualified individuals put their name forward in our first-ever election. TID will be pleased to announce the results of this election at the beginning of May; please check the website www.tts.org/tid for more information.

The 7^th International Transplant Infectious Disease Conference will be held in advance of the ESOT 2013 Congress on September 7, 2013 in historic Vienna, Austria. The theme of the conference is “Cutting Edge Topics in Transplant Infectious Disease for the Transplant Clinician” and is aimed primarily at transplant clinicians with some expertise or interest in infections. The objectives of the conference include: initiate cutting-edge diagnostics and therapeutics in organ transplant recipients with viral, bacterial and fungal infections; improve pre-transplant evaluation of both donors and recipients using optimal diagnostics, new vaccine guidelines, and appropriate chemoprophylaxis; understand, identify, diagnose and treat emerging infectious diseases in transplant recipients navigate complicated cases with unusual and unexpected clinical dilemmas. This one-day conference will give participants the opportunity to enjoy open and active discussions after the presentations, and to network with other attendees.

It is with great pleasure that we would like to announce the 12^th Congress of the International Xenotransplantation Association (IXA), which will be held jointly with the iABO/Hyper Immune Symposium in Osaka, Japan, from November 10–13, 2013.

Osaka is the capital city of the western province of Japan, located an hour’s drive from the traditional old cities of Kyoto & Nara. The program of our joint meeting has been designed with 17 experts from 9 countries and developed to promote a truly interdisciplinary exchange of scientific progress and concepts among investigators active in two different, but increasingly related and overlapping fields. The program will thus provide an excellent forum for both clinical investigators and basic scientists with expertise in ABO-incompatible transplantation and xenotransplantation to meet and discuss innovative strategies for overcoming antibody-mediated rejection, organ shortage, and other obstacles, such as coagulation dysregulation. IXA will open the Call for Abstracts on March 15, 2013 - and registration will be available online through the website starting on April 12, 2013. For updates on the congress please visit www.ixa2013.org.

We would also like to announce the inaugural awarding of the Carl-Gustav Groth Xeno Prize. Jointly funded by the International Xenotransplantation Association (IXA) and the publisher of Xenotransplantation (Wiley), this new prize of $7,000 USD­­­ acknowledges the seminal contributions made by Dr. Groth to the field of xenotransplantation and honours the first author of the best paper published in the journal in each calendar year. We would like to therefore congratulate Dr. Christopher Burlak, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Indiana University, as the first winner of the Carl-Gustav Groth Xeno Prize. His manuscript entitled: “Identification of human preformed antibody targets in GTKO pigs” was judged by the Xeno Prize Committee to be the best of all papers published in Xenotransplantation in 2012.

Please do not hesitate to contact IXA at sections@tts.org to communicate your suggestions.

The ITA Council has completed a successful call for nominations and is now in the midst of holding elections for vacant positions in the 2013–2015 Council. The Council will welcome a new President-Elect, Secretary-Treasurer, Allied Health Professional representative and four Councilors to the 2013–2015 ITA Council in June 2013. The Council is looking forward to continuing the momentum of this section by increasing its communication to the membership, as well as creating new education opportunities through webinars and other initiatives.

ITA is also pleased to announce the creation of an Allied Health Professional membership category and position on the Ad-Hoc Committee of the ITA Council. Concurrently, the Allied Health Professionals look forward to hosting a pre-symposium workshop at the upcoming ISBTS Meeting in Oxford June 26–29, 2013. For more information on becoming an Allied Health Professional member of ITA please visit www.tts.org/ita.

The ITA Council is looking forward to the Oxford Symposium and hopes to see all ITA members and others interested in the field enjoying the cutting edge scientific program and this wonderful city with a rich medical and cultural history.

ISODP remains committed to the implementation of its strategic plan that aims at improving professional practice for donation and enabling information sharing about organ donation and procurement around the world.

According to ISODP’s mission to foster, promote and develop all aspects of organ and tissue donation and procurement, as well as to develop and facilitate educational programs, ISODP successfully launched the TTS-ISODP webinar series in October 2012. After the first presentation by Dr. Günter Kirste, a series of speakers have been lined up including Dr. Jacob Lavee from Tel Aviv University, who spoke on “Prioritizing Registered Donors in Organ Allocation: A New Model for Organ Donation in Israel”.

ISODP has strived to make improvements in its scholarship program, and recently has discussed strategies to broaden the scholarship target group including organizations or programs that wish to develop training programs or materials. In this way, ISODP would be strengthening its commitment to educational projects directed to transplant programs in emerging economies and promoting the growth of transplantation.

ISODP is pleased to announce the 12^th International Organ Donation Congress taking place in Sydney, Australia, November 21-24, 2013. Organized by The Australian DonateLife Network and The Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand, and chaired by Dr. Jeremy Chapman, the congress will provide to participants several concurrent and plenary sessions, debates and space for oral and poster presentations. A variety of topics will be covered during the meeting, among them Bioethics, Donor Management, Education, Social Communication, Intensive Care and Organ Donation, Organ Allocation and Preservation and Transmissible Diseases.

ISODP membership has an array of benefits covering a broad spectrum of professional and personal needs. We encourage you to visit our website at www.isodp.org and join today so that you can join this growing network of international members who are advancing the professional, academic and scientific growth in the field of organ donation and transplantation.

The IPITA Council has been working on a number of initiatives aimed at strengthening our organisation, and ensuring that IPITA fully meets the needs of its members. One of our main focuses for 2013 is the forthcoming IPITA Congress being held in Monterey, California from 24–27 September.

The Congress is a joint venture between IPITA, TTS, and the University of California, San Francisco. Under the Chairmanship of Dr. Peter Stock, the Congress Program Committee has been working hard to put in place a cutting edge program that encompasses all that is state of the art in the fields of whole pancreas and islet transplantation. Plenary sessions have been planned to ensure that the Congress is relevant and stimulating for both basic-scientists and clinicians from all disciplines linked to beta-cell replacement. The IPITA Council has been particularly keen to bring the whole pancreas and islet transplant communities closer together enabling collaborative approaches to individualized patient care, and also to ensure that IPITA remains relevant to the next generation of leaders in our fields. These themes are central to the Congress. In an attempt to ensure that as many trainees / junior scientists can present their work optimally at the meeting (rather than the usual situation at Congresses of them having to stand in isolation by a poster board!), we have scrapped posters for this congress and instead have introduced a number of different types of oral presentation. The deadline for abstract submission is June 3, 2013.

The city of Monterey, California is conducive for hosting a highly successful meeting. Situated on one of the most spectacular coastlines in the world, it is the perfect setting for combining great science with an opportunity to catch up with old friends and to meet new ones. The main social networking event will be held on the evening of the 26^th of September at the world-renowned Monterey Aquarium, a perfect environment for such an occasion. We would like to encourage you all to make plans to join us for what certainly will be a truly outstanding and memorable Congress.

From August 29^th to 31^st, 2013 scientists and practitioners involved in composite tissue allotransplantation (CTA) and vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA) will meet in Wroclaw, Poland for the Eleventh Meeting of the International Hand and Composite Tissue Allotransplantation Society. This meeting will offer the unique opportunity for participants to understand the latest developments in CTA and VCA surgeries of the upper and lower extremities, face, uterus, and larynx and introduce new teams involved in this emerging field of transplantation. Sessions will cover both experimental and clinical study topics such as immunogenicity of VCA, VCA animal models, cell therapy, cortical reintegration, and new categories of VCA procedures. With more than 50 international speakers participating in the scientific program, participants can expect a truly international perspective on immunology, reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation, neurosciences, pathology, donor and organ procurement, ethics and others. Registration and abstract submission are now open and eligible participants can apply for travel grants made available through TTS and to be awarded to the highest scoring abstracts.

Join us in the unique city of Wroclaw, named the European Capital of Culture for 2016 and located only 3 hours from Berlin and Prague. Wroclaw is an historic and cultural city that has German, Austrian, Russian and Polish influences. Conference participants will be attending sessions at the beautiful University of Wroclaw, founded in 1702, and experiencing the beauty of the historic buildings located in the heart of the old Wroclaw. We look forward to welcoming you to IHCTAS 2013 in Poland!

Over the past several months, the Cell Transplant Society (CTS) Council has remained focused on advancing the goals of the Society, to encourage education and research in cellular transplantation, as well as enhancing the activities and benefits of CTS membership. As a result, in the coming months CTS will be asking its Full and Senior members to participate in a call for nominations and election of new members to the CTS Council. Another initiative of the Council is the Mentored Reviewer Program, which will give young investigators the opportunity to participate in the journal article review process under the leadership of CTS mentors.

The 12^th International Congress of the Cell Transplant Society looks forward to welcoming scientists and young investigators to the upcoming meeting being held July 7-11, 2013 in Milan, Italy. The meeting will bring together hundreds of delegates who will have the opportunity to discuss the latest basic and clinical research related to cell transplantation and regenerative medicine.

Mark your calendar to catch up on the new research and therapies, hosted in this unique venue, the University of Milan Campus—designed by architect Filarete in the 15^th Century to house the Hospital Ca' Granda, this hospital is one of the oldest general hospitals in Italy. You will be engaged with groundbreaking science while in visiting a city rich in history, fine art attractions, wonderful food and exciting nightlife.

The Transplantation Society and the Cell Transplant Society will provide $20,000 in travel awards to highly rated abstracts submitted by CTS or TTS members, so students and postdoctoral fellows submit your abstracts and apply for the travel awards. Congress participants will have the opportunity to qualify for CME credits for their attendance at the conference.

The Transplantation Society is pleased to announce that, beginning in November 2012, we now have a member of our staff whose main role will be fostering and growing the relationships between TTS and its Sections. Sondra Livingston, our new Sections Coordinator, will be responsible for working with each section in a variety of capacities including further developing Section Council operations, nominations and election processes, as well as communications and outreach to their membership. Sondra will also coordinate communications between Section Councils and Section meetings.

The Women in Transplantation (WIT) initiative, conceived by Dr. Kathryn J. Wood, was organized by a steering committee appointed through the Transplantation Society in 2009. The members of the steering committee include Kathryn J. Wood, Camille Kotton, Josefina Alberu, Mona Alrukhaimi, Nancy Ascher, Gabriela Berlakovich, Josette Eris, Roslyn Mannon, Elmi Muller, Elaine Reed, Sandi See Tai, Megan Sykes, A. Vathsala, and Lori West. The group has begun another exciting year of outreach and support for the female transplant professional. Activities of WIT have provided women involved in various aspects of transplantation the opportunity to attend national and international conferences and to interact with one another during these meetings. The group has emphasized the importance of women participating in conferences by hosting satellite networking events concurrent with these meetings. The WIT initiative of The Transplantation Society in Berlin involved a formal meeting session, which addressed key issues for both women and men in the workplace. Some of our most recent activities at international conferences include networking events at the 5^th Pan Arab Liver Transplant Society Congress, which was held in Doha, Qatar; and in Alberta, Canada during the Canadian Society of Transplantation’s Annual meeting. We will also have a presence at the American Transplant Congress in Seattle, Washington in May of 2013 and have recently solidified plans for a networking event at the 7^th Congress on Pediatric Transplantation to be held in Warsaw, Poland by the International Pediatric Transplant Association from July 13-16, 2013. We have had wonderful turnouts at each of our events with an increasing number of attendees and lively discussion.

The other major initiative of the WIT is to provide national and international mentorship for young women entering the transplant field. One round of mentor-mentee exchange has been completed. We currently have 80 mentors in a variety of transplant related fields and we are poised to announce a second round of mentee applications. For information regarding the opportunity for mentorship, upcoming networking events and all other WIT initiatives, please visit www.tts-wit.org or email mentoring@tts-wit.org.

As a follow-up to the Young Investigator Awards that were presented at the 24th International Congress in Berlin, the Tribune will be shining a spotlight on the awardees in this three-part series

Nobel laureate
Rolf Martin Zinkernagel

The Basic Science Committee is looking forward to the 13^th TTS Basic Science Symposium/ 3^rd ESOT Basic Science Meeting being held in collaboration with the European Society for Organ Transplantation from November 7-9 at the Hotel Concorde La Fayette in Paris, France. This meeting will continue the successful series of Basic Science meetings, the last of which was held in Cape Cod in 2011. The Paris meeting is chaired by Cristina Cuturi, Nantes, France together with co-chairs Marc Dahlke from Regensburg, Germany and Stefan G. Tullius, Boston, USA.

An outstanding group of internationally highly recognized speakers will be presenting their latest findings in the plenary sessions on regulation, memory, innate and intestinal immunity, biomarkers, and translational research. One of the highlights of the meeting will be the keynote address by Nobel laureate Rolf Martin Zinkernagel. The best submitted abstracts will be selected for oral and poster presentations.

The Basic Science Committee is continuing the collaboration with national and regional transplant societies to award up to 25 Mentor/Mentee Travel Awards for the meeting. A Basic Science Networking event will provide a wonderful opportunity to socialize and to recognize the awardees.

The Basic Science Committee members are looking forward to see you at this exciting symposium in the extraordinarily beautiful city of Paris.

Dr. Henrik Ekberg died suddenly in Thailand on the 29^th of December, 2012. He was the Senior Transplant Surgeon at the University Hospital in Malmö, Sweden, Professor of Transplant Surgery at Lund University and President-Elect of The Transplantation Society.

He was educated in Lund, Sweden and qualified in 1976. His medical and surgical training continued in Lund where he was board certified in 1985. He then spent two years at Westmead in Sydney before returning to Sweden to take up a role as transplant surgeon at the University Hospital, Malmö where he became head of department and mentor to many surgeons and scientists.

Henrik's main research interest was in clinical immunosuppression where he brought together a unique series of international investigator driven multi-center clinical trials, including the seminal CAESAR and Symphony studies. He was an active contributor to many international collaborations including the European Best Practice Guidelines in Renal Transplantation and the KDIGO guidelines. He was an associate editor of the American Journal of Transplantation and on the editorial board of Transplantation, Clinical Transplantation and Transplant International. He was Vice-president of the European Society of Organ Transplantation, and then Councilor, Treasurer, Director of Medical Affairs and, at the time of his death, President-Elect of The Transplantation Society. His presence will be missed throughout the transplant world, where his work was always productive, always enthusiastically received and greatly valued.

Henrik enjoyed an active life at home, finally swapping his boat in Sweden for a house in Thailand where he spent many happy weeks between his trips across the world and for his vacations. He died suddenly while exercising on his bike – always looking forward, always planning for the future of our field and for those around him. Henrik is survived by his partner Susan and his four children and two grandchildren. His family recently sent a note to TTS Headquarters, which is shared with our readers:

On behalf of the family of Henrik Ekberg we would like to express a heartfelt appreciation to the members of the TTS community. Your expression of sympathy and support in this difficult time has been very moving. Reading the many thoughtful and personal condolences has at times been overwhelming- to know that so many of you, his dear friends and colleagues, have had us in your thoughts and prayers has been comforting. Thank you.

Andreas Ekberg
Turid Ekberg
Kajsa Ekberg
Susan Westerlund

Dr. Joseph Murray, the surgeon who carried out the first successful kidney transplant and later won a Nobel Prize for his work in medicine and physiology, died on 26 November, 2012 in Boston at the age of 93.

Murray and his team paved the way for a new field of medicine when they completed the first human organ transplant in 1954, taking a kidney from one identical twin and transplanting it to his twin brother. Later in his career, he continued to search for ways of suppressing a patient's immune response to prevent it from rejecting foreign tissue, eventually becoming a co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1990.

Murray began a career in military medicine upon graduating from Harvard Medical School, and developed an interest in transplanting tissue while working with service personnel injured in World War II. He completed his surgical training at the Brigham & Women's Hospital and later returned to join the staff and serve as chief of plastic surgery.

With broad interests beyond medicine, Murray said in a brief autobiography for the Nobel Prize organization that he and his extended family had been "blessed in our lives beyond my wildest dreams. My only wish,” he added, “would be to have ten more lives to live on this planet. If that were possible, I'd spend one lifetime each in embryology, genetics, physics, astronomy and geology. The other lifetimes would be as a pianist, backwoodsman, tennis player, or writer for the National Geographic."

More than 600,000 people worldwide have received transplants since Murray's innovation. Dr. Murray was awarded the TTS Medawar Prize in 2002.

Dr. Nicholas L. Tilney, President of The Transplantation Society from 2006-2008, died on 13 March, 2013 after an extended illness.

Dr. Tilney was the Francis D. Moore Professor of Surgery, director of the Surgical Research Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, and senior surgeon and director of the Center for Transplantation Research at Brigham & Women's Hospital, where he first came in 1964 and joined the faculty in 1973. He headed the renal transplant service between 1976 and 1992. Dr. Tilney researched ways to lower transplant recipients’ mortality rates. His research in transplantation biology was continuously funded by the National Institute of Health since 1974 and widely regarded for its scientific excellence.

He made many scientific advances during his career, and was among the first to test the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine A in the 1970s. Throughout nearly three decades of laboratory research, Dr. Tilney published more than 550 scientific papers and chapters, trained 40 research fellows from all over the world, and authored “Transplant—From Myth to Reality,” “A Perfectly Striking Departure: Surgeons and Surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, 1912-1980,” and “Invasion of the Body – Revolutions in Surgery.” He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors.

The condolences of the Society have been sent to Dr. Tilney's wife, Mary, and his family. A memorial service was held at the Harvard Yard Chapel on Saturday March 23, 2013. TTS has lost a great leader, a superb clinician/scientist, an ambassador of our Society and a true gentleman.

We are pleased to announce the following recent additions to our International Headquarters team

Elmi Muller, Chair


Medhat Askar, Co-Chair
Academy Course Director

The Education Committee of TTS is currently responsible for providing the “Research Highlights” section to the journal Transplantation on a monthly basis. The idea is to highlight two recent articles – one clinical and one from basic science. Furthermore, many individual members from the Education Committee are now involved in the planning and setup of a meeting on the topic of developing transplantation in Africa in July 2013, in Durban, South Africa. The aim is to determine how to initiate new transplant programmes in some African countries and how to further improve existing African programmes. With this objective in mind, the Education Committee will bring together African clinicians with international senior transplant experts from developed countries to discuss forming partnership alliances, initiating training and education programs in the area of developing both deceased donation and living donation, improving staff training and education, and encouraging scientific research. The overall goal is to discuss transplantation practices in the developing world and to increase organ donation and transplantation in these countries, facilitating better practices around transplantation, including improved use of databases and greater diligence and surveillance. Approximately 30 clinicians will represent the different developing countries in Africa including: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia and Zambia

TTS Education Academy Update

TTS is now empowering its membership to lead education innovations by establishing the TTS Education Academy. Open to all TTS members, the target audience for this initiative is TTS members with keen interest in advancing their academic careers through leadership roles in educating the next generation of transplant heath care professionals and being transplant education thought leaders that combine excellence in their respective specialty disciplines, as well as being well versed in modern concepts in medical education.

The TTS Education Academy provides a platform to connect TTS members as well as a forum for networking and sharing teaching resources, innovations, and best practices. The initial phase of the TTS Education Academy activities includes the development of the Distinguished Educator Level 1 Certificate Program. This program is designed as a foundation curriculum in health care professional education to be made available to TTS membership free of charge. The curriculum will be administered through 12 online webinars at monthly intervals between February 2013 and January 2014. This series is CME accredited and those who attend the entire series will be awarded the TTS Distinguished Educator Certificate. These webinars are presented by renowned leaders in medical education that offer a balanced representation from all parts of the world. The learning objectives of this series were designed so that by the completion of the course participants would be able to:

1. apply principles of scholarship in teaching to everyday teaching activities for increased effectiveness as an educator and to advance one’s academic career;
2. employ a systems approach to the design and implementation of teaching and training programs;
3. demonstrate key skills in teaching and mentoring;
4. develop major components of a teaching/training curriculum including learning objectives, instructional and assessment methods;
5. determine appropriate instructional methods and teaching format for different learning environments; and
6. interpret results of published studies, apply their findings and design studies in medical education research.

The first webinar was presented live on February 19, 2013 and was very well attended—but it is not too late to participate! Don’t miss this unique opportunity! Simply enroll into the academy by filling out the online registration form available on TTS website at www.tts.org/academy and we will send you instructions within a few days on how to catch up on any session that you missed.

In the past few years, The Transplantation Society (TTS) has seen tremendous growth in its membership. At the beginning of 2013, there were over 5800 members of (TTS), representing 97 countries across the globe. The total number of members continues to increase as TTS continues to form partnerships with national and international organizations that share its aim of furthering the scientific, clinical and ethical practice of transplantation. As part of its continuing interest in representing the interests of the global transplant community, TTS first established formal affiliations with a number of transplantation societies. TTS is currently affiliated with the following 19 Affiliated Societies:

• Asociacion Guatemalteca de Nefrologia
• Associacao Brasileira de Transplante de Orgaos (ABTO)
• Asociacion Colombiana de Trasplantes de Organos (ACTO)
• Canadian Society of Transplantation/ Société canadienne de transplantation (CST)
• Regional Health Development Center (RHDC)
  Croatia on Organ Donation and Transplant Medicine
• Sociedad Argentina de Trasplantes (SAT)
• Sociedad Chilena de Trasplante
• Sociedad Espanola de Trasplante (SET)
• Societat Catalana de Trasplantament (SCT)
• Southern African Transplantation Society (SATS)
• The Korean Society for Transplantation
• The Swedish Transplantation Society
• Swisstransplant Society (STS)
• Thai Transplantation Society
• Transplantation Society of Pakistan
• Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ)
• Turkish Transplantation Centers Coordination Association ­(TTCCA)
• International Transplant Nurses Society (ITNS)
• Urology Society for Transplantation and Renal Surgery (USTRS)

This year, additional affiliation agreements are being discussed with:

• Austrotransplant
• British Transplantation Society (BTS)
• Dutch Transplantation Society
• Japan Society of Transplantation (JST)
• Italian Society of Organ Transplantation (SITO)

The addition of the Affiliated Societies remains an active goal of TTS: to help foster closer relationships with transplant professionals all over the world. TTS believes that these partnerships are both mutually rewarding and have the potential to benefit the patients for whom we care. We look forward to collaborating with these societies on a number of projects and initiatives.

From February 28 to March 2, 2013, representatives from the Indian Society of Nephrology, the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation, MOHAN Foundation, WHO, TPM- Spain along with senior consultants in the field of transplantation and transplant coordinators met in Delhi, India at the National Workshop of Transplant Coordinators. Organized by TTS and funded through an educational grant from Panacea Biotec, the workshop deliberated various aspects of deceased donation and produced a consensus document of recommendations for expanding deceased donation and ethical proprieties in living organ transplantation. It was acknowledged that the solution to organ shortage and achievement of self-sufficiency in organ donation for all states in India is possible only through systematic strengthening of the deceased donor program.

Dr. Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services, Government of India, inaugurated the workshop and gave the keynote address, offering his congratulations and assurance of his full support in giving a boost to the deceased donation program in the country.

from left to right: Jagdish Prasad, Francis L. Delmonico, Vivekanand Jha
and Sunil Shroff take part in the Inauguration (Lamp-Lighting) Ceremony

The covered topics ranged from the role of Government organizations, hospitals and NGO's in establishment of the deceased donor program in a hospital and the medico-legal aspects related to the Transplantation of Human Organs Act 1994 (THOA 1994) and its amendments. Specific emphasis was placed on practical training by conducting role playing on grief counseling, public education programs, and documentation related to organ donation and transplantation. Sharing personal experiences during the interactive sessions provided valuable insights to the delegates and underscored reasons why deceased donation has been slow to gain foothold in India. The program also included interactive sessions with intensivists to highlight their role in promoting deceased donation.

The consensus document contains the following recommendations, to be implemented through the offices of the Director General of Health Services:

• Health Secretaries/Directors from all states to participate in a meeting to discuss how to implement deceased donation programs;
• dissemination of the deceased donation pathway and brain death audits in all ICUs in hospitals registered as transplant/retrieval centers;
• review of deceased organ donation performance annually;
• making continuation of living donor transplant programs contingent on meeting certain performance measures for deceased donation;
• mandating all hospitals with >10 ICU beds have a Hospital Organ Donation Committee that would review the brain death audits;
• mandating all hospitals with >10 ICU beds require intensivists to participate in continuing medical education or certification course in the determination of brain deaths and measure referrals to the Transplant Coordinator;
• provide free access for the Transplant Coordinators to ICU’s under the direction of the Hospital Organ Donation Committee;
• implement uniform standard operating procedures for brain death determination, post mortem and police clearance should be issued for guidance to all hospitals;
• require compliance with the Required Request clause in the amended THOTA;
• mandatory national/regional registry of all living and deceased donors;
• create a tracking system for human tissues and mandate quality control measures;
• creation of a certification authority for tissue banks;
• providing educational courses for Hospital staff and Medical Social Workers recognized by the MOHFW for training and certification of Transplant Coordinators;
• disseminating protocols of organ donation based on the experience of the MOHAN Foundation activity that could be used as a reference guide in the implementation of these recommendations.

TTS Exhibits Coordinator, Frank Lindo Verissimo, and Director of Meetings, Geneviève Leclerc,
speak with His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan

During the 13^th Congress of the Middle East Society for Organ Transplantation (MESOT) held from December 12–15, 2012 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, TTS was honored by the visit of His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, UAE Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Chancellor of the United Arab Emirates University and of the Higher Colleges of Technology, at the TTS booth. In this photo, His Highness is seen with Dr. Marwan Masri, MESOT President, and Dr. Mona Al Rukhaimi, Congress Co-President. Supported by TTS, this congress focused on ethical organ donation. TTS President, Francis L. Delmonico, participated as one of the keynote speakers.

During recent visits to Bulgaria, Albania and Serbia, Dr. Francis L. Delmonico, President of TTS, accompanied by Dr. Mirela Busic, Assistant Minister of Health of the Republic of Croatia and Director of RHDC for transplantation and organ donation within South Eastern Europe Health Network (SEEHN), met with the Ministers and Agency Officials of each of these countries. The purpose of these meetings was to support each of these countries in formulating action plans to initiate a program of deceased donation for the people of their country.

Dr. Mirela Busic and Dr.­­ Francis L. Delmonico meet with
Deputy Minister of Health, Mincho Vichev, of Bulgaria

In May 2011, TTS along with the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT), SEEHN, the International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement (ISODP) and ETCO (European Transplant Coordinators Organization) sponsored the South East Europe Initiative on Deceased Organ Donation 2-day workshop in Macedonia. Representatives from the sponsoring organizations as well as 40 representatives from 10 countries from the region developed actions plans to implement deceased organ donation processes in their respective countries. The recent visits by Drs. Delmonico and Busic were a continuation of this ongoing process.

We are pleased to introduce the new Editor of the Tribune - Dr. Nancy K. Man.

Dr. Man is currently an Associate Professor of Department of Surgery, LKS Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong. Her main research focus is in the area of liver graft injury and cancer recurrence after transplantation utilizing an integrated basic, clinical and translational approach. She is currently the Regional Associate Editor (Asia) of Transplantation and Associate Editor of Liver Transplantation. She is also the member of Basic Science Committee of The Transplantation Society (TTS) and the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS), Chairperson of ILTS Scholarship Committee, founding member of the Women Leaders in Transplantation (WLIL), International Mentor of WLIL and a Key Opinion Leader of TTS. She has published more than 85 original articles in peer-reviewed international journals with H index of 27 (total citation >3150). She and her research team have obtained more than 25 international awards including numerous “Rising Star Awards”, “Young Investigator Awards” at ILTS congresses, and “Mentee-Mentor Basic Science Awards” at TTS meetings over the past 7 years.

Francis L. Delmonico
TTS President

Before the end of this calendar year, The Transplantation Society will expand its membership to include more than 7000 professionals around the world representing more than 100 countries with transplantation services.

TTS indeed has a global presence.

The mission of TTS is to be engaged with transplant professionals, transplant professional societies, dialogue with representatives in the medical industry that support transplantation, as well as government representatives often from Ministries of Health — in fostering the clinical care, science, education and ethics of transplantation.

The recent partnership of TTS with the Pan Arab Liver Transplant Society at its Congress in Qatar, exemplifies that partnership mission of TTS. Engagement of TTS throughout the world is witnessed in China by the development of a new program of deceased donation that provides an alternative ethical source of organs to the executed prisoner, in Israel supporting the objective of self-sufficiency in providing organs for Israelis within Israel, in India with its amended national law for the training of transplant coordinators, in the Balkan region of Europe in the establishment of programs of deceased donation and ethically proper live donation, and in Latin America to its partnership with the Ibero-American Council. A blueprint of action in the development of deceased donation is evident by a resolution from the Council of Europe that TTS now supports to achieve realistic goals that include in each jurisdiction or country:

• the designation of a competent authority that oversees the practice of donation and transplantation;
• the establishment of national criteria for authorization of transplant centers;
• the development of a quality and safety framework with specified protocols;
• the qualification of the professionals;
• the implementation of training programs;
• the traceability requirements and the development of a system for the reporting and management of adverse and serious events.

The Transplantation Society is seeking to achieve common objectives for a common humanity that supports and benefits from transplantation.

Thai Transplant Society
Round Table Discussion on 4 D Expansion - November 25, 2012

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from left to right: Dr. Sakarn Bunnag, Dr. Prajej Ruangkanchanasetr,
Dr. Adisorn Lumpaopong, Dr. Francis L. Delmonico,
Professor Vasant Sumethkul, Dr. Usana Luvira,
Dr. Supanit Nivatvong, Dr. Pat Ongcharit