Advisors named to national transplant committee
Outgoing Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Donna Shalala announced in Jan-uary the appointment of 20 members to the new Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation. The committee will advise the Secretary on all aspects of organ procurement, allocation, and transplantation, including independent review and advice on organ allocation policies developed by the nation’s transplantation network.
The advisory committee was created in the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) final rule of 1999 and recommended by the Institute of Medicine report to congress in 1998. The committee is expected to meet three times a year.
National transplantation policies are developed by the OPTN for approval by HHS. Under regulations that took effect last March, organ transplantation policies will continue to be developed by the transplant community through the OPTN, says the HHS. Under the regulations, the advisory committee is to examine the OPTN’s proposed policies and make recommendations to the HHS Secretary before final HHS action is taken. The advisory committee on organ transplantation include:
• Nancy L. Ascher, MD, PhD, (chair) professor, department of surgery, University of California at San Francisco.
• Gail Agrawal, JD, MPH, associate professor of law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
• Denise Y. Alveranga, MD, Lifelink Transplant Institute, Tampa, FL.
• Dan W. Brock, PhD, professor, Brown University, Providence, RI.
• Margaret B. Coolican, MS, RN, CDE, donor family services coordinator, NorthEast Organ Procurement Organization, Hartford, CT.
• Paige Cottigham-Streater, BA, JD, executive director, The Mansfield Center for Public Affairs, Washington, DC.
• Francis L. Delmonico, MD, professor of surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
• Robert D. Gibbons, PhD, director, Center for Health Statistics, professor of biostatistics, University of Illinois at Chicago.
• Bartley P. Griffith, MD, vice chair, department of surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
• William Harmon, MD, nephrologist, Children’s Hospital, Boston.
• J. Harold Helderman, MD, FACP, medical director, renal transplantation, Vanderbilt Transplant Center, professor of microbiology and immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical School, Nashville, TN.
• Lawrence G. Hunsicker, MD, medical director of organ transplantation, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City.
• Roger R. Luna Jr., area director, cardiopulmonary and radiology departments, McAllen (TX) Medical Center.
• Edgar Milford, MD, tissue typing laboratory director, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.
• Howard Nathan, MPH, president and CEO, Gift of Life Donor Program, Philadelphia.
• Mary Ann Palumbi, RN, CCTC senior director, Allegheny General Hospital Transplantation Services, Pittsburgh.
• J. Thomas Rosenthal, MD, director and provost, University of Los Angeles Medical Group, professor of urology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles.
• Flora Solarz, BA, MPS, senior management consultant, New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., New York City.
• Donald M. Stablein, PhD, president/biostatistician, EMMES Corp., Potomac, MD.
• James B. Young, MD, head, section of heart failure and cardiac transplant medicine, Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
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