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With a buzzing phone and dinging inbox repeatedly begging for her attention, Dr. Georgia Beasley momentarily tunes out the chaos to discuss the journey that led to her current position at Duke. Here, she splits her time between treating melanoma patients in the clinic and researching novel treatments for the disease in the laboratory.

For some, the risk of postoperative complications or a long and painful hospital stay may present formidable challenges.

The Duke transplant team recently performed the first liver transplant in the state of North Carolina of an organ from an HIV-positive donor to an HIV-positive recipient, an operation that would not have been possible before the Hope Act was passed in 2013. Previously, organs from donors with HIV infection in the U.S. could not be used and were routinely discarded.

Five faculty members from the Duke Department of Surgery have been selected to participate in the 2018 Duke Leadership Development for Researchers (LEADER) program sponsored by the Duke University School of Medicine Office of Faculty Development.

Duke Surgery’s participants include the following members:

National Institutes of Health grant will fund research to develop safer, more effective therapies for patients undergoing organ transplants.

Photo: Dr. Stuart Knechtle, director of the Duke Transplant Center and liver transplant specialist, and Dr. Ahmad Zaaroura, abdominal transplant fellow in surgery

Duke researchers will lead a $12 million, five-year study to test novel therapies that aim to eliminate or minimize the need for life-long immunosuppressive drugs following transplantation.

Dr. Bradley Collins, Associate Professor, Division of Abdominal Transplant Surgery, was a featured speaker at the Donate Life NC event held at the North Carolina State Capital, House of Chambers, on October 2, 2017. This meeting was a celebration to mark the registration of 5 million organ donors by the NC Department of Motor Vehicles. Dr. Collins serves on the Board of Directors of Donate Life NC.

According to newly released data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, Duke’s transplant center has the nation’s best outcomes for adult liver transplants from deceased donors. The center performed 98 transplants in 2016—the most in North Carolina—and is among the nation’s most efficient centers, moving patients from the waiting list to transplantation more than 2.5 times faster than the national average. Duke’s 1- and 3-year survival rates are also among the best in the United States.

Duke's liver transplant patients move off the waiting list to transplant more than 2.5 times faster than the national average
 

Duke University Hospital has the nation’s best outcomes for adult liver transplants from deceased donors, according to data from 2016.

Duke’s transplant center, which in 1986 became the first in North Carolina to provide liver transplants, is among the nation’s most efficient centers. It moves patients from the waiting list to transplant more than 2.5 times faster than the national average. 

The online medical journal Cureus announced this week that lead author Dr. Aparna Rege, Clinical Associate, Division of Abdominal Transplant Surgery, won a recent publishing competition with a research piece on kidney transplantation. Dr. Rege’s article explores the use of expanded criteria donors and overall donor quality during the last decade in the United States.