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"This committee is a new mechanism for providing independent advice for the Secretary of HHS in reviewing and approving transplant policies," said Secretary Shalala. "The committee will provide for expert input from those most closely involved in the transplant sector, including transplant surgeons and physicians, representatives of donors and recipients, and others."

The advisory committee was created in the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network final rule of 1999 and recommended by the Institute of Medicine Report to Congress in 1998. It will be chaired by Nancy L. Ascher, M.D., Ph.D., liver transplant surgeon and professor at the Department of Surgery, University of California at San Francisco. The committee is expected to meet three times a year. Ten of the members are transplant surgeons and physicians. Other transplant experts in the fields of biostatistics, bioethics and law as well as organ donor and recipient representatives, are also members.

National transplantation policies are developed by the OPTN for approval by HHS. Under regulations that took effect March 16, 2000, HHS made it clear that organ transplantation policies will continue, as before, to be developed by the transplant community through the OPTN. HHS review and approval are needed to make these policies binding on OPTN members. Under the regulations, the advisory committee is to examine the OPTN's proposed policies and make recommendations to the HHS Secretary before final HHS action is taken.

Last year, the OPTN developed proposals to better characterize the medical condition of patients waiting for a liver transplant. The new advisory committee will review these proposals as well as future proposed policies. In addition, on an on-going basis, the committee will review the OPTN's system of collecting, disseminating and ensuring the validity, accuracy, timeliness and usefulness of data. Other scientific, medical, public health, ethical, legal, coverage and financing and socioeconomic issues, as well as national and international policy and developments relevant to transplantation, will also be considered by the committee.

Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation

Nancy L. Ascher, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Department of Surgery, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.

Gail Agrawal, J.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Denise Y. Alveranga, M.D., Lifelink Transplant Institute, Tampa, Fla.

Dan W. Brock, Ph.D., Professor, Brown University, Providence, R.I.

Margaret B. Coolican, M.S., R.N., C.D.E., Donor Family Services Coordinator, NorthEast Organ Procurement Organization, Hartford, Conn.

Paige Cottigham-Streater, B.A., J.D., Executive Director, The Mansfield Center for Pacific Affairs, Washington, D.C.

Francis L. Delmonico, M.D., Professor of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.

Robert D. Gibbons, Ph.D., Director, Center for Health Statistics, Professor of Biostatistics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

Bartley P. Griffith, M.D., Vice Chair, Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pa.

William Harmon, M.D., Nephrologist, Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass.

J. Harold Helderman, M.D., F.A.C.P., Medical Director, Renal Transplantation, Vanderbilt Transplant Center, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical School, Nashville, Tenn.

Lawrence G. Hunsicker, M.D., Medical Director of Organ Transplantation, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa

Roger R. Luna, Jr., Area Director, Cardiopulmonary and Radiology Departments, McAllen Medical Center, McAllen, Texas

Edgar Milford, M.D., Director of the Tissue Typing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass.

Howard Nathan, M.P.H., President and CEO, Gift of Life Donor Program, Philadelphia, Pa.

Mary Ann Palumbi, R.N., CCTC Senior Director, Allegheny General Hospital Transplantation Services, Pittsburgh, Pa.

J. Thomas Rosenthal, M.D., Director and Provost, University of Los Angeles Medical Group, Professor of Urology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, Calif.

Flora Solarz, B.A., M.P.S., Senior Management Consultant, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, New York, N.Y.

Donald M. Stablein, Ph.D., President/Biostatistician, EMMES Corporation, Potomac, Md.

James B. Young, M.D., Head, Section of Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio

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