in focus
UNOS collaborated with eight global transplant organizations and societies on four COVID-19 organ donation and transplant town hall webinars that have received more than 25,000 views.
Global organ donation and transplantation organizations acted swiftly to share real-world experiences.
As COVID-19 cases began increasing globally, conversations among health care providers about the pandemic’s potential impact on transplant started to emerge.
Within a few days, organ donation and transplant communities from around the world assembled to collaborate on a webinar series sharing real-world, global experiences for the organ donation and transplant community. Along with United Network for Organ Sharing, participating organizations included:
- American Society of Transplantation
- Association of Organ Procurement Organizations
- American Society of Transplant Surgeons
- North American Transplant Coordinators Organization
- United Network for Organ Sharing
- Canadian Society of Transplantation
- European Society of Transplantation
- International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation
- The Transplant Society
The societies launched their first live, collaborative webinar “COVID-19: Organ Donation and Transplant Town Hall,” on March 23, and the 1,000 available seats filled up within a few hours. Collaboration continued over the following weeks with three additional webinars, including the most recent webinar on May 11, covering topics ranging from:
- Presentation, diagnosis, treatment and prevention
- Getting to transplant
- Operational issues
- Screening donors and candidates
- Protecting the workforce
- Ethical issues
The societies aren’t done yet, with future plans to produce more collaborative webinars on navigating COVID-19, as well as topics unrelated to the pandemic.
Read more about the COVID-19 pandemic and collaboration within the transplant community.
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