Category Archives: Meetings

Results of the final Workshop

On the 3rd February 2016, a group of 20 kidney transplant recipients, donors and professionals took part in a consensus workshop at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in London. The group considered the top 25 ranked treatment uncertainties from the PSP prioritisation survey, and after much lively debate agreed a top ten list of priorities for the future of research in kidney transplantation.

The top ten priorities agreed by the group were as follows:

  • What is the best way to treat vascular or antibody-mediated acute rejection?
  • How can immunosuppression be personalised to the individual patients to improve the results of transplantation?
  • How can we prevent sensitisation in patients with a failing transplant, to improve their chances of another successful transplant (e.g. removal of the transplant, withdrawal of immunosuppressive medicines or continuation of these medicines?)
  • Can we improve monitoring of the level of immunosuppression to achieve better balance between risk of rejection and side effects? (e.g. T-cell or B-cell ELISPOT, point-of-care tacrolimus monitoring, MMF monitoring)
  • How can we improve transplant rates in highly sensitised patients?
  • What are the long-term health risks to the living kidney donor?
  • How can we encourage tolerance to the transplant to prevent or reduce the need for immunosuppression? (e.g. by use of T-regulatory cells, induction of haemoxygenase 1)
  • What is the best combination of immunosuppressive drugs following kidney transplantation? (e.g. azathioprine or mycophenolate, belatacept, generic or proprietary (brand-name) drugs)
  • What techniques to preserve, condition and transport the kidney before transplantation allow increased preservation times and/or improve results? (e.g. machine perfusion, normothermic reconditioning, addition of agents to the perfusate)
  • Can bioengineered organs be developed to be as safe as human-to-human transplants? How can this be achieved?

We would like to extend a big thank-you to all those who took part in the PSP process, including the steering group, all those who responded to the surveys and the group who attended the final workshop including Karen Casey, Rebecca Farwell, Sue Lyon, Nick Palmer, Alistair Reid, Tracey Rose, Chris Walton, David Wilson, Lisa Wynn, Rasheed Ahmad, Pippa Bailey, Chris Ide, Steven Sachs, Bynvant Sandhu and Michelle Willicombe.

Join us for our final workshop on Feb 3rd, 2016

The Kidney Transplant PSP prioritisation survey has now closed, and we would like to thank the 250+ people who took the time to respond. We are now collating the results in preparation for our final workshop, which will be held at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London on Wednesday 3rd February 2016.

The workshop will run from 9am to 4pm, during which we will agree a final top 10 priorities for future research. We are looking for around 30 enthusiastic professionals (surgeons, nephrologists, nurses, pharmacists etc.), patients (including donors) and carers to take part in the workshop. Travel expenses will be reimbursed, and refreshments provided on the day.

If you are interested in taking part, please contact us at [email protected].

Second Steering Group Meeting Held on 30th March

The second Kidney Transplant PSP steering group meeting was held at the Royal College of Surgeons in London on the 30th March. The first survey was summarised – we received 498 uncertainties from 183 respondents, with an excellent mix of backgrounds (patient, carer and professional) and topics covering over 50 categories.

The steering group ran through the uncertainties submitted from the first survey and narrowed them down to 97 indicative uncertainties. Over the coming months, we will be working hard to identify existing evidence and develop a process for prioritisation.

The steering group would like to thank everyone who took part in the first survey. The strength of the PSP process is in getting input from as many patients, carers and professionals as possible to ensure that the final result represents your views.

First steering group meeting held in London

The first steering group meeting of the Kidney Transplant PSP was held today at the Royal College of Surgeon’s in London.  Representatives of all of our key partners attended the meeting, and there was much positive discussion about how to move the partnership forwards.

For more information about the steering group for this project, please visit here.

Full minutes from the meeting can be downloaded below.

 Minutes of the 1st Steering Group Meeting  London, 19th May 2014