Dear IPTA Colleagues,

The Allied Health (AH) held its first all day pre-congress symposium entitled ‘Improving Outcomes in Pediatric Transplant: A Collaborative and Comprehensive Approach to Care’. It was a great success with over 60 attendees from 8 different countries in attendance including nurses, social workers, psychologists, pharmacists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dietitians, transplant coordinators, chaplains, students and researchers from various disciplines! The symposium included amazing speakers and panel discussions covering a broad range of topics including:

• The Family in Stress: Assessment, strategies and outcomes
• Avatars for Adherence? Utilizing the digital world to improve outcomes
• Back to Basics: Talking instead of texting
• Social Media: Friend or foe (debate)
• Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n roll: Lifestyle guidelines
• The Role of Palliative Care in Paediatric Transplantation: A panel discussion

Please log in to the congress website to see recordings of the sessions!

In addition, over 70 Allied Health delegates registered for the congress. From Allied Health, there were 6 abstracts presentations, 8 mini-abstract presentations, 11 posters presentations and interactive workshops on the following topics:

• Nutrition and Oral Feeding
• Frailty as a Concept in Pediatric Transplantation
• Interventions and Outcomes in Transition: Engaging Adolescents in the Transition Process
• Ethical Issues in Pediatric Transplantation: When a Patient is No Longer a Transplant Candidate

Finally, we also hosted an open Allied Health Professionals business meeting, followed by a social event, which provided a great opportunity to meet new colleagues, network and share ideas.

IPTA, TTS and CST Scientific Awards Winners

Congratulations to all the AH professionals whose great work and positive contributions to the organization were recognized through awards:

• Beverly Kosmach-Park was awarded the Distinguished Allied Health Professional Award
• Research awards were given for the following projects:
  • Anna Gold - Early School Age Cognitive Performance Post Pediatric Heart Transplantation
  • Catherine Patterson - Neurodevelopmental Motor Outcomes in Young Children Pre and Post Liver Transplant
  • Taylor Melanson - Prevalence and Consequences of Medication Non Adherence in Pediatric Kidney Transplant Recipients in the United States 2005-2015
  • Jenny Velasco - Overweight and Obesity Prevalence in Children After Transplant: Short and Medium Term Evolution
  • Robin Deliva - Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Young Heart transplant recipients
  • Mar Miserachs - Standardized Feeding Protocol Following Pediatric Liver Transplantation – A Pathway for Improved Nutritional Care

AHP Committee Initiatives for 2019-2021

1. Allied Health Membership and Focus Survey
   To describe the prevalence, diversity and clinical practice focus of AH team members within each centre globally. This information will serve as a foundation to help inform and develop a greater understanding of multi-disciplinary team composition, and frameworks regarding professional practice. Watch your inbox for a survey coming later 2019!


2. Maintain regular communication with Allied Health
   To continually update the Allied Health Professional page on the IPTA website including regular profiling of AH members, update of committee initiatives and membership benefits. Check out our webpage for upcoming features including ‘Get To Know Your AH Colleagues’, with member profiles every two months and updates on AH related research projects.


3. Continuing education with AH members through the development of a series of webinars
   To develop a series of webinars covering a range of relevant AH topics and drawing upon the expertise of members. The topics for these webinars will be informed by the AH survey results and direct feedback from our members during the IPTA 2019 Congress. Stay tuned!

Upcoming Goals for IPTA 2021 Congress (Prague, Czech Republic)

Plenary and State-of-the Art presentations on AH topics is currently in the planning phase! Be sure to save the date for Prague 2021!

Many thanks for your support,

Anna Gold and Jenny Wichart
Co-Chairs – IPTA Allied Health Professional Committee

Please find this update on Pediatric Transplantation from the Editors-in-Chief Sharon Bartosh and Burkhard Tönshoff.

The Author Guidelines for Pediatric Transplantation have recently been revised (click here). There you will also find the respective links to a number of Research Reporting Guidelines such as CONSORT for randomized trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews and CARE for case reports, beside others. Accurate and complete reporting enables readers to fully appraise research, replicate it, and use it. Authors are encouraged to adhere to recognized research reporting standards. The EQUATOR Network has collected more than 370 reporting guidelines for many study types (click here to visit the website).

Pediatric Transplantation offers the publication of Special Issues such as a series of articles derived from a consensus conference, with all review articles on a particular topic published in one issue. If you plan such a conference, consider to publish the consensus document and/or the respective review articles in our journal. Please contact the Editors-in-Chief Sharon Bartosh and Burkhard Tönshoff beforehand (smbartosh@wisc.edu, burkhard.toenshoff@med.uni-heidelberg.de).

IPTA Readership Survey for readers of Pediatric Transplantation>

Pediatric Transplantation is the official journal of IPTA. At the link below, you will find a survey created by the IPTA Publication Committee and IPTA Leadership regarding the journal. We hope to continue to improve the services the journal provides to you, our members. This survey will help us identify areas to expand or improve. We promise it will not take more than a few minutes to fill out.