September 12, 2011
In Memoriam: John Newmann, Ph.D., M.P.H.
UNOS honors the life and service of John M. Newmann, Ph.D., M.P.H., who passed away recently at the age of 70.
Dr. Newmann, a kidney transplant recipient and tireless advocate for people with end-stage organ failure, was the longest-tenured member of the OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors. He served a total of 14 years on the board between 1988 and 2003. From 2000 to 2001, he was the organization’s Vice President for Patient and Donor Affairs.
Over this same time frame, he served on 12 OPTN/UNOS committees and task forces. He recommended the creation of the Patient Affairs Committee in 1988 and was a founding co-chairman of the committee. He strove to ensure transplant policy decisions were informed by the perspective of transplant recipients, living donors and family members of deceased donors. He also advocated for people potentially in need of transplantation to have the greatest possible access to medical care and high-quality data to inform them of their options.
In addition to his OPTN/UNOS roles, he served four years as president of the American Association of Kidney Patients. He was a board member of other organizations including the National Kidney Foundation, the American Kidney Fund and Arbor Research Collaborative for Health. He also was a member of various task forces for the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services, and he was instrumental in achieving Medicare coverage of hemodialysis.
Dr. Newmann played a pivotal role in ensuring the personal perspectives of transplant candidates and recipients and their loved ones, living donors and deceased donor family members inform the discussion of national transplant policy and scientific analysis. His influence will be long felt, and he will be missed by the many people whose lives he touched.
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