A quality improvement intervention to decrease the decline in renal function in pediatric liver transplant recipients.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) impacts long-term morbidity in pediatric liver transplant (LT) recipients. The prevalence of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 90 mL/min/1.73 m (eGFR < 90) at our institution was 25% at 1 year post-LT; thus, quality improvement (QI) project was initiated, aiming to decrease the prevalence of eGFR < 90 by at least 20% at 1 year-post LT.

Equity factors in pediatric transplant listing: Initial findings from a single center review.

Background: In order to improve transparency within the patient selection process, a transplant listing advisory committee was formed within the Boston Children's Hospital Pediatric Transplant Center. Its mission is to promote equity in access to organ transplantation by ensuring that the institutional transplant selection criteria are fair, unbiased, and nondiscriminatory. The committee conducts comprehensive case and data review of individual characteristics and reviews in aggregate to identify potential systems bias.

Utilization of the Boston Children's Hospital SRTR Cohort Visualization Tool to increase team understanding of reporting cohorts.

Background: While reviewing outcomes metrics and data from the SRTR, it became apparent that prospective assessment of the SRTR reporting cohorts would be an important proactive strategy for internal quality control. It was particularly important to identify the number of patient deaths and graft failures within 1 year of transplant that would result in being flagged by the UNOS and the MPSC.

Methods: A simple Microsoft Excel line graph was created to visually display retrospective, current, and future SRTR cohorts.

Utilization of increased risk for transmission of infectious disease donor organs in solid organ transplantation: Retrospective analysis of disease transmission and safety.

The inadequate supply of transplantable organs necessitates new approaches to organ availability. Serologies and nucleic acid testing (NAT) for hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are used in microbiologic screening of potential organ donors. Organs from donors considered at "high risk" (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC 1994) or "increased risk" (U.