January 27, 2004
Article Chronicles 20 Years of Organ Sharing in the United States
Over the nearly fifty-year history of organ transplantation, efficient use of donated organs has become increasingly vital to meet the needs of people with organ failure. The Mar. 15 issue of the journal Transplantation includes an overview article, "The Organ Center of the United Network for Organ Sharing and Twenty Years of Organ Sharing in the United States," which describes the evolving process of organ placement nationwide.
The article outlines seminal developments from the early preservation and sharing of donated kidneys in the 1960s through the founding and ongoing development of the UNOS Organ Center.
The authors of the article at UNOS include those who have lived the history: Chris Williams, director of technology services (who joined UNOS in 1988), Jim Creger, quality manager, Organ Center (who joined in 1982), Matthew Belton, quality management specialist (1999), Roger Brown, manager, Organ Center (1995), Judy Martin, manager, Organ Center (1990) and H. Myron Kauffman, M.D., physician-researcher (1993). Dr. Kauffman, a transplant surgeon who began practice in the 1960s, remembers the contributions of countless other transplant professionals, too numerous to mention in the manuscript, who were integral in the development of a national organ sharing system. Other co-authors, all of whom were active in the development of UNOS and the Organ Center, include Mark A. Hardy, Columbia University, New York; John C. McDonald, Louisiana State University, Shreveport; and G. Melville Williams, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore.
804-782-4730