Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
2021 Saw Record Organ Transplants In US: Over 41,000
USA Today: Organ Transplants During COVID Set Records In 2021, UNOS Data Show
But the dearth didn't last for long. Last year, a record-breaking 41,354 transplants were performed, according to preliminary data from United Network for Organ Sharing, the first time the U.S. has ever exceeded 40,000 transplants. Dr. Matthew Cooper, president of the UNOS Board of Directors, said the organization continues to see transplantation “increase substantially." “There was a period of early March to the end of April (in 2020) where it was just crisis mode and nobody was doing anything,” said Jill Grandas, executive director of DCI Donor Services, which make up three organ procurement organizations in Tennessee, New Mexico, and California. “Things were pretty abysmal at that point. But in May, our donor programs quickly rebounded and transplantation began again.” (Rodriguez, 2/17)
In related news —
Axios: Bionic Eye Recipients Left In The Dark With Obsolete Tech
A nightmare scenario: A cutting-edge, life-changing device embedded in your body fails and the company behind it is all but gone. It happened to more than 350 people who are blind around the world who received artificial eyes only to be abandoned by the company that invented them, Second Sight Medical Products, the technology journal IEEE Spectrum writes. (Muller, 2/17)
Stat: Altering The Blood Type Of Lungs Raises Potential For Universal Organs For Transplants
It was 4 a.m. on a humid night in St. Catharines, Ontario, and Elizabeth Ostrander couldn’t breathe. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, complicated by pneumonia, was suffocating her, doctors told her that day in 2016. If she hadn’t gotten to the hospital when she did, she would have died, Ostrander remembers them saying. She was in her early 50s. She would spend the next five years hooked to an oxygen tank, cords tangling around her in her sleep. The incurable disease worsened until she had just 25% of her lung capacity left. It was so difficult to breathe that she could barely lug groceries from her car to her kitchen, much less be the “avid camper” she was before. She had to stop working, and was placed on the lung transplant waiting list. (Cueto, 2/16)
Dallas Morning News: UT Southwestern Completes $1 Billion Campaign For Brain Research
UT Southwestern Medical Center completed a $1 billion campaign to support its brain research institute, the medical center announced Wednesday. The five-year campaign for the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute includes $500 million in investments in facilities and programs from UTSW and $500 million in community philanthropic support for research, technology enhancements and faculty recruitment. Funding will go toward advancing research on the underlying mechanisms of brain disease and enhancing clinical care. The campaign is one of the largest brain-focused investments at a U.S. academic medical center, UTSW said in a press release. (Wolf, 2/16)
In case you missed it —
ProPublica: He Donated His Kidney And Received A $13,064 Bill In Return
The email arrived in Elliot Malin’s inbox from his cousin’s mom. “Scott needs a kidney,” the subject line read. The message matter-of-factly described Scott’s situation: At 28 years old, Scott Kline was in end-stage renal failure. He wasn’t on dialysis yet. But he probably should have been. His mom was reaching out to as many people as she could, asking them to be screened as a potential donation match. ... Living organ donors are never supposed to receive a bill for care related to a transplant surgery. The recipient’s insurance covers all of those costs. This rule is key to a system built on encouraging such a selfless act. And for most uninsured patients in end-stage kidney failure, Medicare would pick up the tab. But in Malin’s case, he would end up facing a $13,000 billing mistake and the threat of having his bill sent to collections. (Damon, 2/11)
