Guest Speaker, Southern California

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Guest Speaker

Hans Gritsch, M.D.

 UCLA Surgical Director, Kidney and Kidney-Pancreas
 Transplantation

Associate Professor, Urology

Presented by Transplant Recipients International Organization
TRIO Ventura County West Valley Chapter

 Friday, April 18, 2008 at 7:00 PM

 

On Friday, April 18, 2008, our TRIO Chapter is honored to
 have Hans Gritsch, M.D. as our guest speaker. Dr. Gritsch is
 Surgical Director of Kidney and Kidney Pancreas
 Transplantation at UCLA.  Dr. Gritsch is the Region 5 Representative
 to the OPTN/UNOS Kidney Committee, a member of the Kidney
 Allocation Review Subcommittee (KARS) and a member of TRIO
 Ventura County West Valley Chapter’s Medical Advisory
 Board.

Dr. Gritsch will speak to our chapter about the proposed
 changes being reviewed by the OPTN/UNOS Committee affecting
 the current kidney allocation system and making
 recommendations to improve the system. He will discuss the concept of
 Life Years from Transplant (LYFT), which is the difference
 between a transplant candidate’s estimated survival minus
 their estimated survival on the waiting list. LYFT is based
 on several candidate-specific factors including age,
 diabetes status, BMI. albumin, degree of sensitization (PRA) and
 degree of HLA mismatch with a potential donor. Dr. Gritsch
 will also discuss his experiences with transplant tourism.
 Transplant tourism is the practice of traveling out of the
 United States to Third World countries to purchase an
 organ transplant.

This speech is of vital importance to all kidney patients
 with ESRD, ESRF, on dialysis or waiting on the UNOS list.
 All organ recipients and family members are encouraged to
 attend. Our free speaker meetings are held at the following
 location:

 

Baxter Health Care Company

1 Baxter Way

Westlake Village, California 91363

Place: The Conejo Room

Time: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The meeting is free and refreshments will be served. For
 directions and any questions, contact Ron Taubman at (818)
 701-2977, e-mail at taubmanappr@dslextreme.com or Jackie
 Colleran at (805) 402-9810, e-mail at  jackiecoll@juno.com.