Meet the Aussie kidney specialist who is number one in the world

[natnnnat]

Gregory is very proud because Jeremey Chapman is one of his kidney specialists.  Jeremy points out its a reflection on the team at Westmead, which is one reason why we don't plan to move elsewhere.  Hopefully they will avoid the funding cuts being handed out everywhere in Australia at present...

Meet the Aussie kidney specialist who is number one in the world
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/meet-the-aussie-kidney-specialist-who-is-number-one-in-the-world/story-fni0cx12-1226947464295

WHEN Tanya Bozic looks at her new baby she can barely believe the miracle that is Mila.

Ms Bozic, who suffered chronic kidney disease for 12 years culminating in a kidney transplant in 2011, had been told that she would never have kids but that was before she came across Sydney transplant physician Jeremy Chapman.

I just cry when I look at my baby, it’s just amazing, the transplant team and Professor Chapman, now I can do everything normal and actually have a baby, it’s nothing short of a miracle

Professor Chapman, who heads up Western Renal Services, has just been named the number one expert on kidney transplantation in the world.

The news has not come as a surprise to Ms Bozic, who says she owes her life and that of her daughter to Prof Chapman.

Best of the best - How they ranked
The top global experts in kidney transplantation, as determined by Expertscape, include:

1. Dr. Jeremy Chapman — Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia
2. Dr. Flavio Vincenti — University of California San Francisco, USA
3. Dr. Daniel Brennan — Washington University, USA
4. Dr. Herwig-Ulf Meier-Kriesche — University of Florida, USA
5. Dr. Klemens Budde — Charite Campus Mitte
6. Dr. Arthur Matas — University of Minnesota
7. Dr. Josep Campistol — Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
8. Dr. Giuseppe Remuzzi — Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri di Bergamo
9. Dr. Lionel Rostaing — Toulouse University Hospital, France
10. Dr. Bert Kasiske — Hennepin County Medical Center, USA

“I just cry when I look at my baby, it’s just amazing, the transplant team and Professor Chapman, now I can do everything normal and actually have a baby, it’s nothing short of a miracle,” the 32-year-old from Smithfield said.

Prof Chapman does not consider himself a miracle maker.

“No, absolutely not, it’s a team of 20 to 30 people and I’m just the figurehead,” he said.

Nonetheless, he has been ranked at the top of a world list by Expertscape, a global organisation which objectively evaluates the top medical specialists and their contribution to science.

The 60-year-old, who has worked at Westmead Hospital since 1987, has been involved in ‘a couple of thousand’ kidney transplants in his 30 year career and said the honour was both surprising and a little embarrassing.

“At one level it is surprising because I know all the guys on the list and there is a marginal difference between us, but the real message is we have a great transplant team at Westmead and we are performing strongly,” he said.

When he began his career in the 1970s three or four patients out of every 10 would die after a kidney transplant, now there is only a 2 per cent mortality rate and some patients even go on to have babies.

This week Prof Chapman and the team welcomed two such babies into the world, both born to mothers who have had kidney transplants.

Ms Bozic said she felt privileged to have had such a great doctor. “That is just amazing, what an honour to have had him, I feel so lucky we have had the opportunity to have this happen here and I am able to have my miracle and here she is.”

Conception and successful pregnancy is rare in women with chronic kidney disease due to a high risk of complications, including rejection of the transplant, but both Ms Bozic and Kylie King, another transplant patient of Prof Chapman, have given birth at Westmead Hospital in the past week.

Ms King, 38, welcomed baby Addie into the world this week. She is a few weeks premature but in perfect health.

“I’m very, very lucky but I think all the doctors in the team deserve to be number one,” she said.

[Hemodoc]

Interesting article, although I am a bit leery of these so called rankings. It did bring to mind that I had emailed Dr. Chapman about a transplant related issue for Bill's blog a while back. One of the interesting aspects is that Dr. Chapman support home hemo and PD and is a very large part of his transplant practice utilizing these modalities as a bridge to transplant.  Here is the post from DSEN.

http://www.billpeckham.com/from_the_sharp_end_of_the/2008/06/competing-or-co.html

[cariad]

Very cool, nat!

I usually roll my eyes at these lists because they get them so wrong and their criteria is always arbitrary and different to what I think is important in a nephrologist/surgeon, but I know two on the list and they both deserve to be there. Dr. Chapman is right, I don't know how they could pick a top person for this list because at a certain level there is no better than the next person, just a difference in style. Dr. Vincenti was there for me when I was much younger, and I'm sure it was just an ordinary, forgettable part of his day, but in one phone call he made an impression on me for life. I met him later when I was trying to see if I could get into his clinical trial for Belatacept. He answered the phone when my husband rang - I tried to warn Gwyn, but he thought I was exaggerating and then he had to try to speak with a big bite of apple in his mouth because he assumed that such a prominent medical professional would have his calls screened. Dr. Vincenti was on another conference call when he answered the phone and never once made us feel like we were interrupting anything. He also speaks at least four languages. Dr. Meier I didn't get to know quite as well because I was in a very basic maintenance stage and thankfully didn't need to consult with a nephrologist often. I rang U of Michigan and said I wanted their nicest doctor and that I wouldn't continue seeing their doctors if they were going to be scolding and lecturing all the time. (I was in my 20s and fed up with transplant doctors.) They immediately told me I should see Dr. Meier, and I saw him for about 18 months, and then we both moved out of state.

Dr. Matas has contacted me in the past for some research they were doing, but I always declined so never met him. I've heard mixed reviews, but the fact that I've heard of him at all says something. Sad that there are no UK doctors on the list. Perhaps I'll just go to France if I ever need kidney help again (hopefully not!) I also find it disturbing and suspicious that there are no women listed. Dr. Leventhal of Northwestern should really, really be on that list. I wouldn't say that about just anyone, he is amazing.

Do they explain how they came up with these rankings? I am also confused about why the woman in the article thinks it's such a big deal to have kids after transplant - I've had two after all. I also didn't think the stats were that horrific for transplant in the 1970s. That is when I had my first transplant and I know organs would reject much sooner and more often, but I didn't think the mortality rate was that high. Thanks for posting this and telling us of your experiences with Dr. Chapman.

[natnnnat]

I agree with you both, rankings are pretty cringeworthy, yet I still bragged. 
I think the article was redeemed by the reference to other "top" kidney transplant experts and the sensible comments by Chapman.  I don't know where the women are, except to note that gender equality is generally still a pipe dream throughout most professions.  Women must take time away from work to have babies and this remains generally unsupported, blah blah. That said, there are several female nephrologists in the Westmead team, and hopefully that's not unusual. 

I don't know much about the childbirth thing. 

Nor what their criteria were.  I wondered about that:  was it "objective" measures like number of successful transplants, years transplants lasted etc; did it include something to do with peer recommendations?  Did patients have any voice in the process (unlikely but possible).  I can vouch for Jeremy as an excellent communicator - he was the one who told Gregory his last transplant was failing.  We seemed to have all the time with him that we needed, we felt somehow that things would work out alright, there was a sense of support and intelligent planning that I really valued.  But in other branches of medicine, I have encountered situations where health professionals have great respect for someone and then when you see them, they turn out to be a right turd. So I'm a bit leary of professional rankings or recommendations which are only based on the experiences of their peers.

[Floating]

Interesting Max Performer review article, although I am a bit leery of these so called rankings. It did bring to mind that I had emailed Dr. Chapman about a transplant related issue for Bill's blog a while back. One of the interesting aspects is that Dr. Chapman support home hemo and PD and is a very large part of his transplant practice utilizing these modalities as a bridge to transplant.  Here is the post from DSEN.

http://www.billpeckham.com/from_the_sharp_end_of_the/2008/06/competing-or-co.html

My thoughts exactly. The work these doctors are doing is amazing but how can you really rank them? I'd say the best doctor in the world is the one that saves your life.