So, I took another hiatus.
Let’s get real. It wasn’t that I “took” a hiatus. It’s that my body took the hiatus and I was dragged long for the ride.
So, I took another hiatus.
Let’s get real. It wasn’t that I “took” a hiatus. It’s that my body took the hiatus and I was dragged long for the ride.
I was reading this information about a development in Israel and felt a twinge.
You see, I have been working on a “something” to preclude folks decaying conditions that would require the onset of dialysis. (Do you realize that chronic kidney disease [CKD] affects some10% of the world’s population?) I say “something” because it is not clear if or how my concept can obtain FDA approval. It’s a pretty simple chemical concoction. If we make it a food, then the poor folks (which comprise most of the folks who will need this) won’t be able to afford it, since medical foods are not covered by most health care programs.
Dr. Deepali Kumar (University of Toronto, Director Transplant at University Health Network) was reflecting on his outgoing year as president of the American Society of Transplantation. Basically, despite all the improvements made over the past 70 or so years, we still have a limited organ supply that restricts the best long term outcomes.
Continue reading Two Months until we know the outcome between UNOS and Buckeye
As I suspected, the altercation between Buckeye Transplant Services and UNOS is not going to be settled easily.
Oh, UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) what are we doing now?
In America, most dialysis (kidney failure) patients are treated via hemodialysis. The technique has been around a while, the equipment infrastructure is in place, and the reimbursement rates provided by Medicare means the treatment costs have to be moderate.
Liver failure. One of the deadliest afflictions. The standard treatment is to obtain a liver transplant- and they are hard to come by. Some 100 million folks suffer from liver cirrhosis, with 10 million saddled with an additional complication.
Baxter, one of the larger firms in the dialysis business (but nowhere that powerful in the clinic business), made an announcement that it is planning to spin off its renal care and acute therapies unit into another public company. It expects to complete the divestiture in 2024 or so.
Hmm. The policy (ok, the law) of this land is that it is illegal to pay another human being to induce them to donate a kidney to you or to a loved one. That actually is a good idea, because otherwise not only would there be bidding wars for organs, but only the richer among us could probably arrange for transplants.
Continue reading A concrete way to improve renal transplants