December marked the year’s end and the half-way point of my presidency. We have had a packed and eventful year, with numerous projects coming to fruition in the last 6 months.

First, the big news. As of January 1st, the AST transitioned to a self-management model. Our society, like many other medical societies and associations, was not self-managed. Instead, we paid a fee to an association management company (Association Headquarters, or AH) to run the AST, pay and employ staff, and provide office space and support services such as accounting and technical support. As the Society...

It is with heavy hearts that we share the sad news of the recent passing of Dan Salomon. As president of the AST from 2013-2014, Dan's contributions to the Society were quite visionary. Below is a fitting tribute, written by Ken Newell.

The practice of medicine exposes us to the inevitability of death.  Transplantation allows us to see the cycle of life with joy emerging from tragedy.  However, nothing can prepare us for the loss of a dear friend and colleague.  On November 10, 2016, Dan Salomon passed away after a courageous battle with cancer.  Those who spent...

As our membership becomes more and more diverse, it’s increasingly important that this blog cover a range of topics that interest a wide spectrum of those involved in transplantation. With this in mind, I’ve invited my colleagues Drs. Cetrulo and Ko to provide some insight on the first penis transplant in the United States and what this means for the future of VCA. 

Curtis Cetrulo, Jr., MD, FACS, FAAP Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Surgery Dicken S. C. Ko, MD, FRCSC, FACS, Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Urology

We...

Reg Green, recipient of the 2016 AST Transplant Advocacy Award

I am the father of Nicholas Green, a seven-year old boy from California who was shot during an attempted carjacking while we were on vacation in Italy and whose organs my wife Maggie and I donated to seven Italians, four of them teenagers.

That was in 1994. Scarcely a day has gone by since then that I have not tried somehow to increase awareness of the donor shortage. Therefore, I was delighted to have been given the AST’s 2016 Transplant Advocacy Award. (Thank you to everyone involved and especially to...