This program is supported by an independent educational grant from Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Significant knowledge and evidence have since accumulated from the time KDIGO published its first guideline on the care of the kidney transplant recipients in 2009. More specifically, major advances in post-transplant monitoring; immunological matching between donors and recipients; prevention and management of acute and chronic rejections; and treatment of infections provide some of the compelling reasons for updating this guideline. There has also been a renewed appreciation for the inclusion of patient-reported outcomes during the guideline development process. In this vein, the aim of this session is to review the key themes to be revisited by this guideline update and to address some of exciting developments such as novel biomarkers and therapeutics, xenotransplantation, etc. and their potential implications for both clinicians and patients.

Moderator: Germaine Wong, Director of the Western Renal Service, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia

• 17:00-17:05
  Opening Remarks
  Germaine Wong
• 17:05-17:20
  KDIGO's Plans to Update the KTR GL: What Has Changed and What New Topics to Consider
  Michelle Josephson, Professor of Medicine and Surgery, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA
• 17:20-17:35
  Therapeutic Needs Assessment in KTRs: Findings from an AST Survey
  John Gill, Professor of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
• 17:35-17:50
  What's New and Exciting in Kidney Transplantation Research: Implications for Guidelines, Clinicians, and Transplant Recipients
  Germaine Wong
• 17:50-18:00  
  Closing Remarks
  Germaine Wong

Associate Professor Wong is a transplant nephrologist and Director of the Western Renal Service at Westmead Hospital, Sydney with special interests in transplantation and clinical epidemiology. She is also NHMRC Career Development Research Fellow and Principal Research Fellow at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. Her main area of research interests include: transplant epidemiology, cancer and chronic kidney disease, life-course epidemiology, social ethics in organ donation and allocation, decision analytical modelling, health economics, population health research, and quality of life studies in patients kidney transplants.

Michelle Josephson is Professor of Medicine and Surgery at University of Chicago.  She serves as Director of Education for the Transplant Institute and Program Director of the Transplant Nephrology Fellowship.. After receiving her MD from University of Pennsylvania she completed a medical internship, residency and nephrology fellowship at University of Chicago.  In 1992 she founded the Transplant Nephrologiy Program serving as Medical Director till 2023 and in 2001 established the Transplant Nephrology Fellowship at University of Chicago.

Dr. Josephson was a member of the KDIGO international work group that wrote “Care of the Transplant Recipient Guidelines.”  She co-chaired KDIGO’s Controversies Conference on “Challenges in Management of the Kidney Allograft: From Decline to Failure.” She has particular interests in the live kidney donor, post-transplant bone disease, BK virus, and pregnancy in the transplant recipient. She served on the KDIGO Board of Councilors, was a Councilor on the American Society of Transplantation Board, and President of Women in Nephrology.   She currently serves as President of the American Society of Nephrology.

Dr John Gill is Professor of Medicine with tenure at The University of British Columbia, Division of Nephrology, St. Paul’s Hospital.

Dr Gill completed his medical training in 2000–BSc 1990, MD 1995 (British Columbia), Internal Medicine 1998 (Western Ontario), Nephrology 2000 (British Columbia)–and completed a Masters degree in clinical care research at Tuft’s University in Boston (2002) before joining the Division of Nephrology at UBC in July, 2002.

John is an active researcher whose interests include clinical outcomes in kidney transplantation, access to care, clinical trials and health services research. He has served as the supervisor for Masters and PhD candidates at the UBC School of Population and Public Health. He holds a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Foundation Grant and received the Established Clinical Investigator Award from the American Society of Transplantation in 2017. He is a Past President of the Canadian Society of Nephrology and the Canadian Organ Replacement Register Board of Directors. He previously served as a co-chair of the White House Research and Innovation in Transplantation Working Group under President Obama.

Dr Gill currently serves on the Expert Advisory Panel of the United States Renal Data System and the External Expert Panel of the NIH Apollo Study.  John is Consulting Editor for the American Journal of Transplantation and Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. John is President-elect of the American Society of Transplantation and is also a member of several national working groups to advance care for transplant recipients in Canada.