Network Partners
Why Network Partners are so Strategic
The Starzl Network aims to accelerate progress in transplantation by connecting transplant thought leaders, tech innovators and industry leaders to work together to solve the challenges our patients and families have identified as priority areas. Partners from health care, industry, and charitable foundations allow us to strategically expand the reach and impact of the network.
The Starzl Network is Powered by
More information about Citrone 33's transformational gift can be found here
2022-2023 Starzl Network Supporters
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Henry L. Hillman Foundation works to ensure that Pittsburgh’s considerable strengths, assets, and advantages are fully leveraged to make it one of the world’s most innovative and forward-looking cities, with a reputation for solving big problems through civic leadership and collaboration.
Henry L. Hillman Foundation has a broad interest in initiatives that are timely and designed to take advantage of an emerging opportunity. The Foundation will prioritize investments that align with the following “portfolio” focus areas: Aging Well, Big Ideas and New Models, Capturing the Next Economy, Healthy Neighborhoods, Strengthening Democracy, and Sustainable Regional Infrastructure.
OmniLife is a nationally recognized communication technology platform dedicated to the unique needs of transplant and donation professionals. Over the past four years, the company has built the nation’s largest communication and collaboration network dedicated completely to the unique needs of transplant and donation professionals.
OmniLife’s founders were recognized in the 2018 HealthCare edition of Forbes 30 Under 30. The company was recently awarded $2M in Phase I & II grants by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), with the resulting Phase I study showing promising results which have been accepted for publication in the industry journal “Progress in Transplantation.” OmniLife’s technology has been incorporated into donation and transplant specialties nationally and has facilitated over 1,000 life-saving transplants to date. https://www.getomnilife.com/starzl-partnership-announcement/
Regionally, nationally, and globally, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh is a leader in the treatment of childhood conditions and diseases, a pioneer in the development of new and improved therapies, and a top educator of the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists. With generous community support, UPMC Children’s Hospital has fulfilled this mission since its founding in 1890. UPMC Children’s is recognized consistently for its clinical, research, educational, and advocacy-related accomplishments, including ranking in the top 10 on the 2021-2022 U.S. News Honor Roll of America’s Best Children’s Hospitals. UPMC Children’s also ranks 15th among
children’s hospitals and schools of medicine in funding for pediatric research provided by the National Institutes of Health (FY2019).
CareDx is committed to improving transplant patient outcomes through innovative, noninvasive testing solutions and services throughout the entire patient journey. Our understanding of transplant patients and care teams allows us to develop solutions to extend graft life – one of which is AlloSure, an emerging standard of care for kidney transplant patients, used in over 150 U.S. transplant centers and over 30,000 patients. With two decades of commitment to transplant care, CareDx has developed close partnerships across the transplant ecosystem that grow stronger every day. Click here (PDF) to learn more about Utility of AlloSure in Pediatric Kidney Transplant Patients.
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Why We Started
What is a Learning Health System
In 2006, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) convened a Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine to explore innovative strategies for improving health care. IOM’s guiding principle was that medical decision-making and health care systems should be “grounded on a reliable evidence base,” “account for individual variation in patient needs,” and facilitate “the generation of new insights on clinical effectiveness.”1 To realize these goals, the IOM experts envisioned implementing learning health systems (LHS), which would be built to enable “continuous improvement and innovation, with best practices seamlessly embedded in the delivery process and new knowledge captured as an integral byproduct of the delivery experience.”2 LHS aim to integrate research, improvement, management, and patient care such that every patient receives “the right care at the right time…every time.”3 Critical to a successful LHS is the integration of all stakeholders that utilize and interact with the system, in its construction and implementation. This includes patients, families, medical providers, administrators, representatives from supporting industries, and policymakers.
Accelerating Patient Care
The Starzl Network is a Learning Health System designed to transform transplantation by combining transparency, best practices, and patient reported outcomes with innovative technology.
Key components include engaging patients and families as partners in the design of network priorities, database design, and tools to disseminate learning, implement knowledge, and improve practice.
Gaps Our Learning Health System Addresses
Challenges
- Pediatric transplantation is a rare disease
- Variation in practice based on: Geographically, Age, and/or Center
- Time to implementation and dissemination of knowledge is too long
- Lack of evidence-based practice
Approaches
- Collaboration
- Learning from other disciplines
- Include patient voice
- Integration of industry and tech partners •
- Use improvement and research strategies
Support Opportunities
For a full list of Starzl Network support opportunities please click here
Please contact, C.J. Confair, cj.confair@starzlnetwork.org, with any questions.