University at Buffalo Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) has selected physician Liise Kayler, program director of Regional Transplantation and Kidney Care Center of Excellence at ECMC, to receive the Top Clinical Research Achievement Award.
The research submission, “Hardest-to-place Kidney Transplant Outcomes in the United States” involves the study of the best treatment for kidney failure. The results of the study determined that the best treatment for kidney failure is kidney transplantation.
Over 100,000 people in the United States are currently waiting for a kidney donation. Yet 20% of kidneys recovered for transplantation are discarded every year.
Kayler’s study asked the question: Why discard kidneys when so many people are waiting for one?
Kayler and her team wanted to know if the kidneys that were discarded could have been transplanted with good outcomes. They looked at national data of kidneys that were almost discarded and computed their survival. They found that the kidney survival was only slightly worse than easy-to-place kidneys, meaning that some discarded kidneys could have been valuable for transplantation. They also wanted to see how transplant center report cards would fare if the center was good at utilizing kidneys. They found that transplant centers that are good at utilizing kidneys may be unfairly penalized. The research findings determined that transplant centers should utilize more kidneys and stop discarding so many.
This research project was submitted to the sixth annual CTSI Clinical Research Achievement Award competition.
“I am grateful to CTSI for this recognition,” said Kayler. “Our hope is that this award helps to increase awareness of the need for policy makers to make their grading system fair to incentivize transplantation to enable us to save more lives of those individuals suffering from end stage renal disease.”