Dear IPTA Colleagues,

As the year draws to a close, let us reflect on the progress we have made together. The resounding success of the IPTA Congress in March in Austin, skillfully orchestrated by our Immediate Past-President Dr. Carlos O. Esquivel, set the tone for a year of significant advancements within our association.

The newly formed committees have delved into their pivotal roles for the betterment of pediatric transplantation. The Outreach Committee's diligent efforts have led to the selection of collaborations aimed at fortifying pediatric transplantation in two underserved regions, in this instance Senegal and Sri Lanka. Looking ahead, the application deadline for the next phase of the Outreach Program is slated for July next year. Applications for the IPTA Outreach Fellowship Program will also open early next year. This program was conceptualized by Dr. Carlos O. Esquivel with the intention of developing and supporting the careers of early career investigators / Allied Health and Nursing Professionals from low income or low middle income countries.

The Education Committee's SMARTER initiative has gained momentum with its expansion to incorporate monthly themes and engaging posts, including the first webinar organized in conjunction with the Multi-Organ Committee. This webinar will take place on January 25th 2024. Meanwhile, the collaborative efforts between the Allied Health and Nursing Professionals Committee and the Education Committee are making remarkable strides in the planning of the Virtual Educational IPTA Symposium 2024, which will take place in November 2024.

The Publications Committee has initiated an official IPTA Peer Mentoring Program, through which early career researchers can research projects, increasing their publication yield.

Additionally, numerous other stimulating projects and initiatives have been set in motion by various IPTA committees, contributing to the vibrant growth of our organization.

The IPTA Council's innovative project of establishing communities of practice is steadily taking shape. With meticulous planning now complete, we eagerly anticipate the launch of organ-specific communities, spearheaded by dedicated council members. We extend a warm invitation to all IPTA members to actively participate in these communities and contribute to their development. Please keep a look out for communications regarding how to get involved in new year.

IPTA is actively forging and formalizing partnerships with related societies such as ESPN, ESOT, ISHLT, and ISOT. Our focus lies on fostering collaborations for speaker exchanges at future congresses, establishing a rich exchange of ideas and expertise.

As we eagerly anticipate the upcoming year, we remain dedicated to furthering the impact of IPTA in 2024. May the holiday season bring you joy and relaxation, and may the transition to the new year be filled with optimism and promise.

Warm regards,

Lars Pape
IPTA President

Update

Submitted by Rupesh Raina, on behalf of the IPTA Education Committee

The IPTA Education Committee is excited to share our latest developments and initiatives from this 2023 year. The Education Committee aims to provide leadership in pediatric transplant education across all levels of training and expertise. To advance this mission, the committee develops and promotes comprehensive educational activities to meet the diverse needs of our global members. The committee supports the innovation of educational programs both within IPTA and at scientific meetings.

The Education Committee has undertaken several key projects to promote pediatric transplant education. Our first major project was the organization of the SMARTER Initiative, which has been a significant source of monthly educational materials, including podcasts and journal club presentations. Focusing on pediatric transplantation, the SMARTER Initiative has extensively covered cardiac and lung transplantation research. We aim to continue to share the complexities, recent advancements, and potential future directions in pediatric solid organ transplantation.

In collaboration with the SMARTER initiative, we have submitted an editorial and literature review focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on SOT recipients and the emerging role of telehealth. Work in progress of the Education Committee includes exploring and reviewing transition tools for multi-organ transplantation, enhancing our understanding, and supporting access to education on organ-specific transplant and transition tools.

The Education Committee is currently planning a Virtual Education Symposium, which is scheduled to take place in late 2024. This seminar is intended for Fellows and Allied Health & Nursing Professionals (AHNP). We are excited to share more details about the event with you soon and anticipate your participation.

Finally, we are still collecting responses for our survey to assess the knowledge gaps and innovation in education for IPTA fellows. This survey, comprising 29 questions, aims to refine the quality of education delivery and develop a comprehensive curriculum for future pediatric transplant professionals. The survey is conveniently available in both English and Spanish to accommodate your preferences. We would appreciate your participation and time. To get started, please click on the survey link provided below:

Please click here to access the survey in English

Please click here to access the survey in Spanish

We thank you for your continued support and look forward to your active participation in these initiatives.

Update

Submitted by Michael Freeman on behalf of the IPTA Ethics Committee

The IPTA Ethics Committee would encourage IPTA membership to review the presentations given at the 18th Annual Pediatric Bioethics conference presented by the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics and Palliative Care at Seattle Children's Hospital, entitled "The Give and Take: Ethical Issues in Pediatric Transplant".

The Treuman Katz Center has kindly allowed the recordings of this conference to be freely available to the public, and includes presentations by many members of IPTA including members of the IPTA ethics committee. This conference offers a broad overview of many of the pressing issues in pediatric transplantation that we face as a community throughout the world.

Update

Submitted by Chesney Castleberry on behalf of the IPTA Publications Committee

The Publications Committee would like to warmly welcome our newest members Kelly Collins (USA), Ahmad Mirza (USA), Rajiv Sinha (India) and Christian Benden (Switzerland), as well as Rajan Garg (India) as our Fellow representative. We continue to support the mission of the Society through both our work on publications review/idea generation and want to thank Burkhard Toenshoff for his continued work on the committee to serve as the liaison to the Pediatric Transplantation Journal as well as ongoing work with our Council Liaison Anette Melk.

We also would like to take this moment to further publicize our evolving work on the IPTA Mentorship Program, with the goal to increase quality submissions and impact of the Pediatric Transplantation Journal as well as to support researches across our society. There are four levels of mentoring offered by IPTA, with increasing participation of the mentor from level 1 to 4, sharing authorship if applicable. At level four, virtual and/or face-to-face help is contemplated as a "visiting professor." There are also opportunities for more general mentoring or mentoring in other areas if required. We encourage everyone across the experience continuum to visit our website to learn more about the program and ways in which you can either receive more support for your research or give to the IPTA community. We will review interest on an ongoing basis and reach out to mentor and mentee with their assignments on a quarterly basis. Thanks so much to those already enrolled and we look forward to supporting this program to maturity as we continue to try to find innovative ways to support emerging science and our community at large. Please feel free to contact me directly or our committee members for more details about the program.

Visit the Mentoring Program Page

Lastly, we would like to ask you to feel free to come up with any suggestions and/or contributions for the IPTA newsletter. After all, the newsletter is meant for you!

Join IPTA Today!

Spread the word! If you know someone who you feel should become an IPTA member, please share this link https://tts.org/ipta-members-area/ipta-join or ask them to email sections@tts.org

Let’s keep up this momentum and grow the Society to 1000+ members!

Update

Submitted by Sharon Bartosh and Burkhard Tönshoff on behalf of Pediatric Transplantation

Editorial Board:
Welcome to Drs Don Hayes and Marc Schecter as new Lung Associate Editors. Welcome to Dr Jens Eickhoff as our new Statistical Editor.

Research Notes:
Submissions to the Research Notes category are peer-reviewed publications of clinical or laboratory observations, in abbreviated form. Research Notes are limited in scope (900 word count limit) relative to full length Original Research Manuscripts. Research Notes are peer-reviewed, indexed in Medline, accessible to literature searches, and cited. Research Notes must have the following subsections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion

PEDIATRIC TRANSPLANTATION AUTHOR GUIDELINES

Global Forum Submission Type:
Articles submitted to the new Global Forum category must follow the standard presentation format and should convey data from emerging pediatric transplant programs, with a focus on low and low middle income countries. This submission type is meant to address the shortage of pediatric transplant data from low resource settings. Authors may describe the transplant processes (deceased and/or living donor), patient characteristics, donor profiles and clinical outcomes of a single center, region or country. The authors are at liberty to discuss the barriers to transplantation encountered, issues in setting up a new pediatric transplant program and propose strategies to overcome these challenges, including opportunities for advocacy from the global pediatric transplant community.

A Note About PETR’s Impact Factor:
What is an Impact Factor (IF)?
The IF is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It is commonly used to evaluate the relative importance of a journal within its field. The Impact Factor is calculated by dividing the number of citations in the current year to articles published in the previous two years by the total number of articles published in the previous two years.

Who calculates the IF? Clarivate Analytics is an independent US company focused on scientific and academic research, patent analysis and legal regulation, pharmaceutical and biotechnological research. Clarivate is responsible for calculating scientific journal’s Impact Factor.

Why did PETR’s impact factor decrease? The decrease in our IF from 1.54 in 2021 to 1.34 in 2022 was expected and understandable. It was related to a change in the way Clarivate calculates the IF and a staggered incorporation of Early View articles into the IF over a period of 3 years together with the COVID related inflation of research output. 90% of journals in the JCR had a decline in IF. While PETR had a decrease in IF, we had an increase in category ranking (108/130 [Pediatrics]; 21/26 [Transplantation]).

Review Articles:
The EICs are interested in hearing suggestions from our readership for Invited Review Article topics. Please submit suggestions to smbartosh@wisc.edu or Burkhard.Toenshoff@med.uni-heidelberg.de

IPTA Outreach Program – Winners!

Submitted by Priya Pais on behalf of the IPTA Outreach Committee

The IPTA Outreach Committee is delighted to announce the winners of its 2023 Outreach Program awards.


Abass Ndao Hospital, Senegal – Hopital des Enfantes Malades-Necker, Paris, France




Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, Colombo, Sri Lanka – National University Health System, Singapore




The winning pairs demonstrated their intention to work together to optimize transplant services and outcomes for children in low resource settings maintaining the highest clinical and ethical standards. We wish them the best of luck in their endeavours!

Please be on the lookout for more news on the IPTA Outreach Fellowship Program 2024, which will open early next year.

IPTA Advocacy Survey

Submitted on behalf of the IPTA Outreach Committee

IPTA Pediatric Allocation Landscape Survey
Child Organ Allocation Advocacy: An International Initiative

The International Pediatric Transplant Association (IPTA) believes it is important to represent the community of members, patients, and families it serves. By broadening the scope of advocacy, we promote the cause of children and young people who will benefit from transplants around the world.

A group within IPTA focused on International Advocacy has been shedding light to the current landscape of pediatric transplant organ allocation. To date, pediatric patient wait list mortality continues to exist due to the persistent disparity between organ supply and demand.

Below is one of two questionnaires that aims to identify current pediatric transplant programs and allocation policies around the world. Once the first questionnaire is filed, a second short survey dedicated to your area of specialty will be forwarded.

Thank you for your participation in the IPTA. We invite you to read more about our initiative in our most recent publication on this topic at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/petr.14317

Click here to take the survey

Thank you!

IPTA MOTX Webinar

The Multi-Organ Transplant Committee (MOTx) of the International Pediatric Transplant Association (IPTA) presents a case of transplantation for a patient with methylmalonic acidemia (MMA), an autosomal recessive disorder disrupting normal amino acid metabolism and leading to hyperammonemia. Treatment with liver transplant alone and combined liver and kidney transplantation have led to increased survival rates in children. Discussion will center on treatment decisions leading to liver transplant alone vs. dual liver/kidney listing, challenges of pediatric organ transplant listing for MMA, and outcomes.

Click here for details and to register


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