August 11, 2023 • 18 mins
Today we are speaking with Elizabeth Shipman, the Senior Director of Organ Services at Nevada Donor Network. Elizabeth has a vast background in organ donation and transplantation. Enjoy the show!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:08):
Thank you for visiting the Medi Apps show brought to you by the Medical Logistics and Transportation Organization,
Medi Apps.
I'm your host,
Ryland Stone.
Today we are speaking with Elizabeth Shipman,
the senior Director of Organ Services at Nevada Donor Network.
Elizabeth has a vast background in organ donation and transplantation.
I hope you enjoy the show.
(00:30):
Hey,
Elizabeth.
Thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Really appreciate your time.
Thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
Yeah,
I'm really excited for this conversation.
I think it'll be something a little bit different for our listeners.
Uh Just kind of to jump right into you and what you guys are working on.
You're the senior director of Organ Services at Nevada Donor Network.
Is that right?
That is correct?
(00:51):
Ok.
So how about you give me just like a little bit of a background on what your title is,
what your role is at Nevada Donor Network.
And then we can get into all the good nitty gritty about uh kind of where you grew up,
things like that.
Just give it all to us.
Awesome.
So my role is um the senior Director of Oregon Services.
So I oversee four departments,
our hospital services department,
(01:12):
which really focuses on the development and partnerships with our hospitals in our service area.
Um Our surgical services department which coordinates the surgical procurement of the organs um and the organ preservation.
Our family services department which focuses on serving our donor families,
(01:32):
providing um family services and comfort to our donor families.
Obtaining authorization for uh organ procurement as well as our clinical department,
which basically becomes the clinical team,
the nurses um that help clinically manage our donors and optimize organs for donations.
(01:55):
Sounds like a very complicated process.
What kind of got you into this world of organ donation?
Um Just for,
for listeners that,
that aren't familiar with OP Os organ procurement agencies,
just correct me if I'm wrong here but are primarily managing all of the available organs and making sure that they're connected with hospitals for transplant recipients.
Correct?
Um So it sounds very simple and it's a very complex uh community and complex area in health care.
(02:21):
It was actually completely by coincidence.
So um I went to college at Florida State.
I am a Floridian born and raised and I was originally going to school for accounting because my mom is in finance and accounting and really wanted me to have a career that um I always have and my junior year of college,
(02:44):
I decided that I absolutely hated accounting and hated finance and I wanted to find a new career path.
So I was debating between uh nursing and teaching.
I ended up choosing the nursing career.
So I moved down to South Florida for the summer.
Between my junior and senior year,
I did like 24 credit hours of all my nursing school prerequisites and then went back to Florida State,
(03:12):
switched uh to marketing and graduated with a business marketing degree so I could graduate still in four years and then moved home and started an accelerated nursing program at Miami Dade.
Um When I was in school at Miami Dade,
uh I started a part time job at an Organ Procurement organization Life Alliance in Miami um as a donor services coordinator.
(03:35):
So kind of the tip of the spear of any opo obtaining the initial referrals.
Um And I was doing that part time while going to nursing school in nursing school.
I realized I never wanted to be a bedside nurse.
So I decided that I was going to kind of abandon my nursing career.
And after a few years working at that OPO,
(03:56):
I switched over to Miami Transplant Institute,
which is a multi organ.
Um one of the largest that battles back and forth every year between a couple of other large transplant centers.
And that's really where my career began and started climbing up the operational career ladder of two years ago.
A little over two years ago,
(04:17):
an opportunity in Nevada opened uh for a director of Oregon Services and I uh took a very long recruitment process.
Um,
it took me quite a while to make a final decision to move.
I've never lived out of Florida my entire life.
So it was a very,
um,
big decision and it's been two years and I'm extremely grateful to be here.
(04:42):
Well,
wonderful story.
That's definitely a change coming from Florida to,
to Nevada.
I'm sure you're,
that's kind of a shock just even from weather.
Um,
yes,
it's like 90 90% humidity in Florida today.
And it's,
when I just got out of my car,
it said 100 and 18,
I think that's a little exaggerated.
It might be like 100 and eight,
(05:04):
but nonetheless,
it's very hot.
Yeah.
Jeez.
Wow.
That is definitely different.
I'm out here in Colorado and it's,
it's not nearly as honest where you guys are at.
Um,
well,
yeah,
cool.
Very interesting background there.
What's kind of as you look over your career for someone who wants to get into specifically organ procurement for,
let's say you're talking to a,
a nursing student or a paramedic,
(05:25):
anything like that.
What would be your advice to them?
So,
transplant and donation is a very difficult career.
And I think the average tenure of someone who works in this industry is around 2 to 3 years or your entire career.
I think testing it out and applying and seeing if it's a fit for you is great.
(05:50):
I think you've learned very quickly if it is or if it isn't and it's ok that it's not,
um,
it is emotionally physically draining,
but it is the most rewarding in my opinion.
And I may be biased the most rewarding career that someone can possibly have.
So that would be my advice.
(06:12):
So,
so for any of those you touched on your kind of first job that you guys had or that you had was the donation coordinator.
What is a day in the life of a donation coordinator look like?
So you are obtaining all the initial referrals uh from a hospital.
So it can be again,
emotionally tiring because you are hearing um death after death after death,
(06:35):
then you are approaching families for authorization for tissue and ocular.
Um I did not do that part.
I was strictly just obtaining the referrals and building out the medical records and then passing that on to someone very,
very interesting.
Yeah,
that,
that's,
it's a whole different world from other health care,
(06:57):
especially just kind of dealing with,
with death.
It's a hard process for a lot of families to pro or to kind of go through,
but definitely really,
really rewarding to see the outcome of a of a patient that's life has been transformed through transplantation.
Absolutely.
And I think it is a very like it's a very niche area in health care.
(07:18):
And unless you know someone um that needed a transplant that got a transplant.
Had a family member that passed,
that was potentially eligible to be a donor.
You really don't hear about donation.
Yeah,
I think the only time that I've seen it in the public arena is driver's license applications.
You're signing up for your driver's license.
(07:39):
And that's,
that's kind of one aspect there.
Uh,
what's kind of a,
uh,
a story that you might be able to share that was really impactful to you kind of going through the different organizations that you've worked at.
So there's quite a lot,
but I have one that is extremely recent and I think is um has been the most impactful experience of my career thus far.
(08:00):
So one of my colleagues,
probably the sweetest human being that I know um has had type one diabetes and never,
she joined around the same time that I joined here at Nevada Donor Network.
And she never really knew that transplant potentially could be an option for her a pancreas transplant.
(08:21):
And so we um educated her here at Nevada Donor Network and we spoke a lot about it.
And finally,
she made the decision that she wanted to get listed.
So we helped her navigate because that's the other thing,
a lot of patients um who need organs are in end stage organ failure,
don't have the proper advocate or education to,
(08:46):
to even know that transplant is an option.
So she,
we really educated her on this option.
She spoke it over with her family.
She started getting worked up for pancreas transplant here at our local transplant center as well as another one.
in another state.
And three weeks ago,
she got a phone call and I was sitting in our main conference room and in our,
(09:11):
in our office,
all of the walls are glass.
So it's very distracting.
Um And she ran over to the conference room that we were all sitting in and was pointing at her phone.
And at first I didn't understand what she was doing.
And I walked out of the room and she said this is the call.
I got the call.
She uh quickly got in her car,
(09:32):
drove to the transplant center.
The transplant went phenomenal.
Her care team was impeccable,
the surgeon,
the nurses,
everybody was amazing.
And actually,
uh today she was well,
Monday,
she was allowed to come back to,
to Vegas and spend the week in Vegas.
And today she came to our office and we got to see her and she is just shining like she feels incredible.
(09:58):
She looks incredible and it's just,
it's extra motivation for what we do every day.
That's a huge transformation and very,
very cool.
Uh So I guess now to just kind of move on a lot of our,
our listeners or other health care executives,
what have been some of the biggest challenges since you started at Nevada Donor Network or things that you see that even other people might have ideas in to kind of help solve things or anything in in that arena.
(10:26):
I think one of the biggest challenges for me coming into this role specifically was I didn't have the exact experience um that people might have thought I should have.
So Nevada donor network is very key on finding culture fit and um people who are just yeah going to fit in with the organization um and meet our core values.
(10:54):
And that was something that I really had to overcome with the actual skill set.
So the first six months I was out with my coordinators um learning everything that they're doing,
seeing it from uh their eyes and their struggles and what they go through on a day to day basis so that I could to them.
(11:15):
Um And I think that would be my biggest advice is to never lose sight of that.
I still go to the operating room um for organ procurement,
especially for complex cases,
but even just sometimes to be in the atmosphere of being in the operating room and seeing the team work and everyone there uh for the same goal when I walk in and they notice that I'm there because they don't see,
(11:40):
I'm in the buffet hat and I have a mask and in scrubs and I'm not dressed up in my normal executive attire.
Um You just see their faces light up and that's really rewarding for me um to to help them know that they're supported.
What's kind of the history of Nevada donor network?
So,
moving off of your professional experience,
(12:01):
what's some background on Nevada donor network itself?
There's a lot of different OP OS,
something interesting that I found for the OPO industry is you guys all kind of operate as individual units uh compared to different organizations that might have a large reach in multiple different states.
You guys are kind of all in a single geographical area.
Can you touch on any of that?
And kind of just the history?
(12:22):
Yeah.
So there's 56 Op Os um One day way back when the nation was divided into the 6 56 OP OS um and divided into donation service areas.
So each OPO was assigned a certain geographical map.
It's kind of arbitrary,
(12:42):
some have multiple states.
We're very,
very small.
So we cover Southern Nevada.
Um And we have partners in Northern Nevada.
We have an office in Northern Nevada for Tissue and Ocular.
But the OP Os were or the the nation was divided into these service areas and then you are absolutely correct.
Each one runs individually.
(13:03):
Some are affiliated with a hospital,
some are affiliated with a university.
We are an independent opo.
So we don't,
we answer to our board.
We don't have um hospital or university oversight which really allows us to be,
be the entrepreneurial and innovative organization that we are.
(13:25):
Um our board is full of incredible people from Las Vegas um that really push innovation in health care and in what we're doing um and extremely open to us coming to them with ideas and wanting to try things and to increase organ utilization and donation here.
(13:46):
What's one of the most exciting innovations that you guys have either tested or are currently looking at as you gonna go into the next five years.
Yeah.
So there's quite a few,
I think the most exciting one that I can actually announce now is we have signed a contract with a normal thermic machine perfusion company.
(14:08):
Um And we will soon be uh able to pump livers on this machine.
So that's pretty innovative that an OPO is doing that.
Um Typically transplant centers have owned that process because it's their patients.
Um But due to where we're at geographically,
we do not have a liver transplant program here in Las Vegas.
(14:31):
So our organ have to travel much further um than some others in the country.
So we're always looking at ways to improve the organ utilization to improve the actual function of the organ,
improve the outcomes for the patients.
Um and just increase organ transplant.
Very cool.
(14:52):
So just explain to me what the perfusion device does in the back of my mind.
I'm assuming it it helps perfuse an organ.
So it doesn't uh have tissue death,
anything like that.
But quite certainly.
So an organ becomes available and you guys coordinate the recovery.
And then for this device,
you guys hook it up and where does it go from there?
Historically,
kidneys were the main organs that were put on machine perfusion and it was hypothermic machine perfusion.
(15:18):
So it was cold and it was with preservation solution.
One of the new innovations in the past few years here in the US Europe,
they've been much more advanced at this um than the US.
But it's,
it's making its way here to the US.
And this new innovation is normal thermic.
So it is actually with blood and the machine,
(15:40):
the the organ is hooked up to this machine and blood is perfused through the organ with the liver machines.
The bile duct is connected to the machine and you actually can watch the liver produced bile.
Um It is crazy like absolutely crazy.
And I'm sure if you,
you tube,
(16:00):
there's a bunch of hearts on machines,
hearts in a box and you can see all of that.
Um And you see the heart beating out in the box and the one with the liver.
I'm kind of a geek for liver.
I I don't know why.
Um But that one to me was just so amazing to see and just to watch the liver just start working.
(16:22):
Yeah.
No,
that's wild.
And it does,
that just allow you guys to have longer time to transplant as opposed to the,
the classic movie scene where people are running around in a cooler or with a cooler.
Exactly.
Um that still exists and sometimes that still happens.
Grey's anatomy is not too far off.
Um But yes,
it allows for longer ischemic time.
(16:44):
So the organ can be outside of the body for longer,
which allows more access for recipients.
Um There's some recipients who might live six hours away from their transplant center.
So it allows them to get to their transplant center on time for us.
What we see a lot is um once families make the decision that they want to withdraw their loved one from a ventilator,
(17:08):
uh they typically have made,
come to terms with that decision and want to move forward with the process.
So this machine allows us to move forward with donation and there's a lot of testing,
um serology testing that goes into the matching and making sure the organ is safe for transplant.
So this allows us to put the organ on the machine without any damage and run all of the tests to make sure it's safe and then allocate the organ.
(17:35):
Very cool.
It's very fascinating to see all the new innovations coming into organ procurement and frankly just health care as a whole thinking about your professional life.
Now as it stands today,
what's your core purpose when you wake up each and every day as aside from your family,
because we all love our family,
but kind of focusing on your professional career.
I not I think I know my core purpose is to end the wait.
(18:03):
It's for the recipients that are waiting.
It's for the donor families who are grieving and giving them that silver lining that their loved one can be a hero.
So for our transplant recipients that are waiting and potential recipients and for our donors,
it's a wonderful mission.
(18:23):
Well,
thank you so much for coming on the show,
Elizabeth.
I really appreciate your time.
I think it was a great conversation and we hope to have you on in future.
Awesome.
Thank you.
Thank you for visiting the Medi Apps show brought to you by the Medical Logistics and Transportation Organization,
Medi Apps.
I'm your host,
Ryland Stone.
Today we are speaking with Elizabeth Shipman,
the senior Director of Organ Services at Nevada Donor Network.
Elizabeth has a vast background in organ donation and transplantation.
I hope you enjoy the show.
(00:30):
Hey,
Elizabeth.
Thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Really appreciate your time.
Thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
Yeah,
I'm really excited for this conversation.
I think it'll be something a little bit different for our listeners.
Uh Just kind of to jump right into you and what you guys are working on.
You're the senior director of Organ Services at Nevada Donor Network.
Is that right?
That is correct?
(00:51):
Ok.
So how about you give me just like a little bit of a background on what your title is,
what your role is at Nevada Donor Network.
And then we can get into all the good nitty gritty about uh kind of where you grew up,
things like that.
Just give it all to us.
Awesome.
So my role is um the senior Director of Oregon Services.
So I oversee four departments,
our hospital services department,
(01:12):
which really focuses on the development and partnerships with our hospitals in our service area.
Um Our surgical services department which coordinates the surgical procurement of the organs um and the organ preservation.
Our family services department which focuses on serving our donor families,
(01:32):
providing um family services and comfort to our donor families.
Obtaining authorization for uh organ procurement as well as our clinical department,
which basically becomes the clinical team,
the nurses um that help clinically manage our donors and optimize organs for donations.
(01:55):
Sounds like a very complicated process.
What kind of got you into this world of organ donation?
Um Just for,
for listeners that,
that aren't familiar with OP Os organ procurement agencies,
just correct me if I'm wrong here but are primarily managing all of the available organs and making sure that they're connected with hospitals for transplant recipients.
Correct?
Um So it sounds very simple and it's a very complex uh community and complex area in health care.
(02:21):
It was actually completely by coincidence.
So um I went to college at Florida State.
I am a Floridian born and raised and I was originally going to school for accounting because my mom is in finance and accounting and really wanted me to have a career that um I always have and my junior year of college,
(02:44):
I decided that I absolutely hated accounting and hated finance and I wanted to find a new career path.
So I was debating between uh nursing and teaching.
I ended up choosing the nursing career.
So I moved down to South Florida for the summer.
Between my junior and senior year,
I did like 24 credit hours of all my nursing school prerequisites and then went back to Florida State,
(03:12):
switched uh to marketing and graduated with a business marketing degree so I could graduate still in four years and then moved home and started an accelerated nursing program at Miami Dade.
Um When I was in school at Miami Dade,
uh I started a part time job at an Organ Procurement organization Life Alliance in Miami um as a donor services coordinator.
(03:35):
So kind of the tip of the spear of any opo obtaining the initial referrals.
Um And I was doing that part time while going to nursing school in nursing school.
I realized I never wanted to be a bedside nurse.
So I decided that I was going to kind of abandon my nursing career.
And after a few years working at that OPO,
(03:56):
I switched over to Miami Transplant Institute,
which is a multi organ.
Um one of the largest that battles back and forth every year between a couple of other large transplant centers.
And that's really where my career began and started climbing up the operational career ladder of two years ago.
A little over two years ago,
(04:17):
an opportunity in Nevada opened uh for a director of Oregon Services and I uh took a very long recruitment process.
Um,
it took me quite a while to make a final decision to move.
I've never lived out of Florida my entire life.
So it was a very,
um,
big decision and it's been two years and I'm extremely grateful to be here.
(04:42):
Well,
wonderful story.
That's definitely a change coming from Florida to,
to Nevada.
I'm sure you're,
that's kind of a shock just even from weather.
Um,
yes,
it's like 90 90% humidity in Florida today.
And it's,
when I just got out of my car,
it said 100 and 18,
I think that's a little exaggerated.
It might be like 100 and eight,
(05:04):
but nonetheless,
it's very hot.
Yeah.
Jeez.
Wow.
That is definitely different.
I'm out here in Colorado and it's,
it's not nearly as honest where you guys are at.
Um,
well,
yeah,
cool.
Very interesting background there.
What's kind of as you look over your career for someone who wants to get into specifically organ procurement for,
let's say you're talking to a,
a nursing student or a paramedic,
(05:25):
anything like that.
What would be your advice to them?
So,
transplant and donation is a very difficult career.
And I think the average tenure of someone who works in this industry is around 2 to 3 years or your entire career.
I think testing it out and applying and seeing if it's a fit for you is great.
(05:50):
I think you've learned very quickly if it is or if it isn't and it's ok that it's not,
um,
it is emotionally physically draining,
but it is the most rewarding in my opinion.
And I may be biased the most rewarding career that someone can possibly have.
So that would be my advice.
(06:12):
So,
so for any of those you touched on your kind of first job that you guys had or that you had was the donation coordinator.
What is a day in the life of a donation coordinator look like?
So you are obtaining all the initial referrals uh from a hospital.
So it can be again,
emotionally tiring because you are hearing um death after death after death,
(06:35):
then you are approaching families for authorization for tissue and ocular.
Um I did not do that part.
I was strictly just obtaining the referrals and building out the medical records and then passing that on to someone very,
very interesting.
Yeah,
that,
that's,
it's a whole different world from other health care,
(06:57):
especially just kind of dealing with,
with death.
It's a hard process for a lot of families to pro or to kind of go through,
but definitely really,
really rewarding to see the outcome of a of a patient that's life has been transformed through transplantation.
Absolutely.
And I think it is a very like it's a very niche area in health care.
(07:18):
And unless you know someone um that needed a transplant that got a transplant.
Had a family member that passed,
that was potentially eligible to be a donor.
You really don't hear about donation.
Yeah,
I think the only time that I've seen it in the public arena is driver's license applications.
You're signing up for your driver's license.
(07:39):
And that's,
that's kind of one aspect there.
Uh,
what's kind of a,
uh,
a story that you might be able to share that was really impactful to you kind of going through the different organizations that you've worked at.
So there's quite a lot,
but I have one that is extremely recent and I think is um has been the most impactful experience of my career thus far.
(08:00):
So one of my colleagues,
probably the sweetest human being that I know um has had type one diabetes and never,
she joined around the same time that I joined here at Nevada Donor Network.
And she never really knew that transplant potentially could be an option for her a pancreas transplant.
(08:21):
And so we um educated her here at Nevada Donor Network and we spoke a lot about it.
And finally,
she made the decision that she wanted to get listed.
So we helped her navigate because that's the other thing,
a lot of patients um who need organs are in end stage organ failure,
don't have the proper advocate or education to,
(08:46):
to even know that transplant is an option.
So she,
we really educated her on this option.
She spoke it over with her family.
She started getting worked up for pancreas transplant here at our local transplant center as well as another one.
in another state.
And three weeks ago,
she got a phone call and I was sitting in our main conference room and in our,
(09:11):
in our office,
all of the walls are glass.
So it's very distracting.
Um And she ran over to the conference room that we were all sitting in and was pointing at her phone.
And at first I didn't understand what she was doing.
And I walked out of the room and she said this is the call.
I got the call.
She uh quickly got in her car,
(09:32):
drove to the transplant center.
The transplant went phenomenal.
Her care team was impeccable,
the surgeon,
the nurses,
everybody was amazing.
And actually,
uh today she was well,
Monday,
she was allowed to come back to,
to Vegas and spend the week in Vegas.
And today she came to our office and we got to see her and she is just shining like she feels incredible.
(09:58):
She looks incredible and it's just,
it's extra motivation for what we do every day.
That's a huge transformation and very,
very cool.
Uh So I guess now to just kind of move on a lot of our,
our listeners or other health care executives,
what have been some of the biggest challenges since you started at Nevada Donor Network or things that you see that even other people might have ideas in to kind of help solve things or anything in in that arena.
(10:26):
I think one of the biggest challenges for me coming into this role specifically was I didn't have the exact experience um that people might have thought I should have.
So Nevada donor network is very key on finding culture fit and um people who are just yeah going to fit in with the organization um and meet our core values.
(10:54):
And that was something that I really had to overcome with the actual skill set.
So the first six months I was out with my coordinators um learning everything that they're doing,
seeing it from uh their eyes and their struggles and what they go through on a day to day basis so that I could to them.
(11:15):
Um And I think that would be my biggest advice is to never lose sight of that.
I still go to the operating room um for organ procurement,
especially for complex cases,
but even just sometimes to be in the atmosphere of being in the operating room and seeing the team work and everyone there uh for the same goal when I walk in and they notice that I'm there because they don't see,
(11:40):
I'm in the buffet hat and I have a mask and in scrubs and I'm not dressed up in my normal executive attire.
Um You just see their faces light up and that's really rewarding for me um to to help them know that they're supported.
What's kind of the history of Nevada donor network?
So,
moving off of your professional experience,
(12:01):
what's some background on Nevada donor network itself?
There's a lot of different OP OS,
something interesting that I found for the OPO industry is you guys all kind of operate as individual units uh compared to different organizations that might have a large reach in multiple different states.
You guys are kind of all in a single geographical area.
Can you touch on any of that?
And kind of just the history?
(12:22):
Yeah.
So there's 56 Op Os um One day way back when the nation was divided into the 6 56 OP OS um and divided into donation service areas.
So each OPO was assigned a certain geographical map.
It's kind of arbitrary,
(12:42):
some have multiple states.
We're very,
very small.
So we cover Southern Nevada.
Um And we have partners in Northern Nevada.
We have an office in Northern Nevada for Tissue and Ocular.
But the OP Os were or the the nation was divided into these service areas and then you are absolutely correct.
Each one runs individually.
(13:03):
Some are affiliated with a hospital,
some are affiliated with a university.
We are an independent opo.
So we don't,
we answer to our board.
We don't have um hospital or university oversight which really allows us to be,
be the entrepreneurial and innovative organization that we are.
(13:25):
Um our board is full of incredible people from Las Vegas um that really push innovation in health care and in what we're doing um and extremely open to us coming to them with ideas and wanting to try things and to increase organ utilization and donation here.
(13:46):
What's one of the most exciting innovations that you guys have either tested or are currently looking at as you gonna go into the next five years.
Yeah.
So there's quite a few,
I think the most exciting one that I can actually announce now is we have signed a contract with a normal thermic machine perfusion company.
(14:08):
Um And we will soon be uh able to pump livers on this machine.
So that's pretty innovative that an OPO is doing that.
Um Typically transplant centers have owned that process because it's their patients.
Um But due to where we're at geographically,
we do not have a liver transplant program here in Las Vegas.
(14:31):
So our organ have to travel much further um than some others in the country.
So we're always looking at ways to improve the organ utilization to improve the actual function of the organ,
improve the outcomes for the patients.
Um and just increase organ transplant.
Very cool.
(14:52):
So just explain to me what the perfusion device does in the back of my mind.
I'm assuming it it helps perfuse an organ.
So it doesn't uh have tissue death,
anything like that.
But quite certainly.
So an organ becomes available and you guys coordinate the recovery.
And then for this device,
you guys hook it up and where does it go from there?
Historically,
kidneys were the main organs that were put on machine perfusion and it was hypothermic machine perfusion.
(15:18):
So it was cold and it was with preservation solution.
One of the new innovations in the past few years here in the US Europe,
they've been much more advanced at this um than the US.
But it's,
it's making its way here to the US.
And this new innovation is normal thermic.
So it is actually with blood and the machine,
(15:40):
the the organ is hooked up to this machine and blood is perfused through the organ with the liver machines.
The bile duct is connected to the machine and you actually can watch the liver produced bile.
Um It is crazy like absolutely crazy.
And I'm sure if you,
you tube,
(16:00):
there's a bunch of hearts on machines,
hearts in a box and you can see all of that.
Um And you see the heart beating out in the box and the one with the liver.
I'm kind of a geek for liver.
I I don't know why.
Um But that one to me was just so amazing to see and just to watch the liver just start working.
(16:22):
Yeah.
No,
that's wild.
And it does,
that just allow you guys to have longer time to transplant as opposed to the,
the classic movie scene where people are running around in a cooler or with a cooler.
Exactly.
Um that still exists and sometimes that still happens.
Grey's anatomy is not too far off.
Um But yes,
it allows for longer ischemic time.
(16:44):
So the organ can be outside of the body for longer,
which allows more access for recipients.
Um There's some recipients who might live six hours away from their transplant center.
So it allows them to get to their transplant center on time for us.
What we see a lot is um once families make the decision that they want to withdraw their loved one from a ventilator,
(17:08):
uh they typically have made,
come to terms with that decision and want to move forward with the process.
So this machine allows us to move forward with donation and there's a lot of testing,
um serology testing that goes into the matching and making sure the organ is safe for transplant.
So this allows us to put the organ on the machine without any damage and run all of the tests to make sure it's safe and then allocate the organ.
(17:35):
Very cool.
It's very fascinating to see all the new innovations coming into organ procurement and frankly just health care as a whole thinking about your professional life.
Now as it stands today,
what's your core purpose when you wake up each and every day as aside from your family,
because we all love our family,
but kind of focusing on your professional career.
I not I think I know my core purpose is to end the wait.
(18:03):
It's for the recipients that are waiting.
It's for the donor families who are grieving and giving them that silver lining that their loved one can be a hero.
So for our transplant recipients that are waiting and potential recipients and for our donors,
it's a wonderful mission.
(18:23):
Well,
thank you so much for coming on the show,
Elizabeth.
I really appreciate your time.
I think it was a great conversation and we hope to have you on in future.
Awesome.
Thank you.
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