Center for Policy Studies Public Affairs Discussion Group
Speaker: Johnie Rose, MD, PhD
Associate Professor and Director, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Population Cancer Analytics Shared Resource
PQHS Secondary Faculty
Meeting Both In-Person and by Zoom (pre-registration required)
Dampeer Room, Second Floor of Kelvin Smith Library (university i.d. card needed for entry), APP
Zoom link for registration is:
Excerpts from the Center for Policy Studies Public Affairs Discussion Group e-mail newsletter:
In 2024 are waiting for a transplant. So that means a large share will die while on the waiting list. For example, every year while awaiting a liver transplant. This example creates what bioethicist Arthur Caplan “the core ethical challenge for transplantation – rationing.” Yet it is not simply a rationing challenge. For example, policies might make it easier to “harvest” organs, such as by convincing more people to agree to that in , or by convincing more family members to approve donations (very soon) after a patient’s death. Policies might also address geographic distribution issues, which exist in part because some communities have more people dying by accident or violence, which tends to provide a supply of younger and healthier organs, while others have greater prevalence of risk factors for organ failure. Beyond such issues of supply or equity there is also the basic question of which patients will benefit how much from a transplant: so that the transplants go to the patients for whom they will do the most good.
All these issues of supply and demand and geography and priorities have led, over the past few decades, to continual reform, formalization and centralization of systems for allocating precious donor organs. The goal of the U.S. transplant system has been to balance the needs of the most medically urgent transplant candidates with maximizing utility and achieving equitable distribution. The context in which these goals are pursued continuously changes, however, as clinical practice and technology steadily improve the viability and ex vivo longevity of donor organs. The challenge has been around for decades; the conditions and possibilities keep changing.
In this session Professor Johnie Rose joins us to provide a brief history of the U.S. transplant system, outline the principles it attempts to balance, and describe how empirical methods (data science and computer simulation) are being leveraged to understand and improve system outcomes. He will draw examples from NIH-funded work taking place at Case and the Cleveland Clinic.
University authorities have decided to increase security by requiring university i.d. cards to enter all but a few buildings. The Tinkham Veale Center is one exception. But the Kelvin Smith Library is not. Visitors already had to scan a university i.d. card or go to the front desk in KSL and show their regular i.d. when they came to the discussions. The change is that identification will now be required to enter the building from outside. So if you are at the main entrance door, and don’t have a card that you can scan to open the door, you will have to push a button for the intercom and explain that you want to attend the Friday Lunch. And if you have been accustomed to parking in the East Blvd underground garage and using the door that goes directly into KSL, that’s no longer possible without a CWRU i.d. card. You will need to go up the exits that are marked for the Thwing Center or the Tinkham Veale University Center, and then make the short walk to the main entrance of KSL.
We do require pre-registering for that so as to avoid “zoom-bombing.” The pre-registration link is posted below.
The discussion will begin at 12:30 pm but the room should be open by Noon. Participants should also be able to sign on to Zoom by Noon. But please remember not much will be happening online until the talk begins at 12:30 pm. You do need to show identification to enter the library.
We continue to offer beverages and dessert, with the desserts normally home-baked and beverages now also normally brought by myself and my kind helpers, as university catering prices have risen substantially. We will still try to use the good people at Café Bon Appetit in situations when I cannot handle the goodie duty. As always, if you want something really healthy, you will need to bring your own lunch. Sorry.
Zoom participants should speak up when asked for questions or comments or can submit thoughts through Zoom’s chat function. Please keep yourself muted until you are choosing to speak.
Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. When you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. If you do not get this e-mailed newsletter, you should also be able to get the program information each Monday by checking the . Then if you choose you can use the contact form on the website to request the registration link.
This week's Zoom link for registration is:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.