Transplant Natters – The BTS Nursing Newsletter November 2019 Issue

Transplant Natters – The British Transplantation Society Nursing Newsletter February Issue is here including the latest news, events and more.

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Transplant Natters
November 2019 Issue

 

Transplant Natters – The BTS Nursing Newsletter February Issue

Transplant Natters – The British Transplantation Society Nursing Newsletter February Issue is here including the latest news, interviews and more.

.

Transplant Natters
February 2019 Issue

Transplant Natters
November 2018 Issue

Transplant Natters
May 2018 Issue

 

Transplant Natters – The BTS Nursing Newsletter November Issue

Transplant Natters – The British Transplantation Society Nursing Newsletter November Issue is here including the latest news, interviews and more.

 

Transplant Natters
November 2018 Issue

Transplant Natters
May 2018 Issue

 

Transplant Natters – The BTS Nursing Newsletter May 2018 Issue

Transplant Natters – The British Transplantation Society Nursing Newsletter is here including the latest news, interviews and more.

.

Transplant Natters
May 2018 Issue

Message from the President

Hello again from the executive team.

Summer is upon us and I have no doubt that some of you will be migrating to the sunshine for some well earned R and R. As many of you will be aware we have made some changes this year.

Firstly, we will soon have a ‘new-look’ website with an updated logo, a fresh and current looking ‘front end’ and a more functional business end. Thank you to all who have contributed to the updated content, especially the chapters and committee leads as well as Lisa, Rachel Johnson, Jan, and Julie, Candi and Charlotte in the secretariat for their efforts with Thumb Design to deliver this.

Congress plans are well underway and, as agreed by council and members at the AGM, our 2017 meeting will have a slightly new feel, with the first day being taken over by 3 themed symposia. We will also run a new style of poster presentations and an MDT plenary session. But more from Lorna in her update.

I would also like to thank all the surgeons who supported and contributed the COS/BTS day symposium at the association of Surgeons meeting in Belfast. It was a great success and showcased the excellent work we do in the field. We were also privileged to have Professor Dorry Segev as our special guest (BJS travelling fellow). His contribution was immense – thank you Dorry.

3-D Printing Could Revolutionise Organ Transplantation

3D Printing

The recent emergence of 3-D printers promises to change the way we fabricate materials. With an advanced 3-D printer, people will someday be able to make almost anything at home with the proper raw materials.

It should be no surprise that doctors have been looking at this cutting-edge technology and experimenting with how they can use it as a tool to advance the practice of medicine.

Their ultimate hope is that they will be able to use a 3-D printer to create fully functioning human organs. When the day comes that the process is truly refined, immunosuppressant drugs will finally be unnecessary because the patient’s own cells would be used in the making of the organ. This would ensure acceptance, and the ability to fabricate organs would mean we would never have a shortage again.

In recent work done jointly by Sydney University and Harvard University, researchers managed to make their way over a significant barrier. The problem was that they couldn’t figure out how to make blood vessels form properly, which would quickly sink a printed organ’s chances at survival. They used a 3-D printer to create tiny capillaries which then led to the formation of blood vessels they were hoping for. Dr. Luiz Bertassoni, the man in charge of the project, cautions people not to jump to the conclusion that we can already start printing fully functioning 3-D organs. While he hopes that we will achieve the technology sooner, he believes it will still be a couple of decades before we advance that far.