ANN ARBOR, MI – The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded the University Renal Research and Education Association (URREA) a new five-year contract to continue administering the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). The SRTR supports the ongoing evaluation of the scientific and clinical status of solid organ transplantation in the United States.

URREA is a not-for-profit health outcomes research group in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As before, URREA will be working in close collaboration with professional colleagues from the University of Michigan on the SRTR. The contract places this Ann Arbor-based group at the forefront of policy analysis and clinical research for patients with end-stage organ failure.

The SRTR evaluates a range of issues in transplantation, with implications for clinicians, payers, care givers, policy makers, researchers, and above all, for patients — transplant candidates, recipients of transplants, organ donors, and their families.

Data are maintained and analyzed about all U.S. donors, waiting lists, and transplants, including those for kidney, liver, pancreas, heart, lung, and intestine. By continuing to investigate issues of organ procurement, allocation, and patient well-being, the SRTR will generate information of vital importance to the overall transplant community.

Dr. Friedrich K. Port, President of URREA and principal investigator for the SRTR, states, “We are honored by the responsibility entrusted to our dedicated and experienced team, and by the opportunity to improve the lives of patients with advanced organ failure.”

Dr. Port and other URREA staff will maintain their longstanding SRTR collaborations with University of Michigan Medical School faculty colleagues, including Drs. Robert Merion, Akinlolu Ojo, Alan Leichtman, John Magee, and Randall Sung. Dr. Merion, a highly respected transplant surgeon and Clinical Transplant Director for the SRTR, observes that “The development of transplantation policy has always required a careful balance of scientifically validated information and humanistic values. On behalf of all patients who may be affected by our work, we remain 100 percent committed to conducting scientifically rigorous research of the highest quality.”

Dr. Robert Wolfe, Deputy Project Director of the SRTR, leads a team of analysts on the URREA staff and from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, including faculty members Drs. Jack Kalbfleisch, Susan Murray, Brenda Gillespie, Richard Hirth, and Douglas Schaubel. This statistical team will continue its work in developing new methodology for evaluating outcomes for patients with organ failure. Together, these investigators have a long and well-established reputation for influential work in transplantation, epidemiology, economics, and biostatistics as they relate to patients with end stage organ disease.

Dr. Wolfe commented, “It is very rewarding to be able to work with the many professionals who make the life-saving option of transplantation possible. I am proud that our team has been able to contribute to advances in this endeavor. We have recently made great progress in terms of understanding how to get needed organs to those for whom transplantation will be of greatest benefit. This is an effort where science works very effectively, with both patients and health care providers, to make a difference.”

In the past five years, the SRTR has evaluated and helped advance the practice of transplantation in a variety of ways, including:

• state-of-the-art reports for transplant professionals, Congress, other government bodies, and the public
• nearly 50 important publications in major peer-reviewed medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Journal of Transplantation
• presentations at major scientific and regulatory meetings
• allocation simulation models that have helped shape changes in organ allocation policy
• analytical support for the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and the HHS Secretary's Advisory Committee on Transplantation
• dissemination of scientific information about transplantation, including center-specific analyses of outcomes at each of the nation's transplant centers and organ procurement organizations, available for pubic view at http://www.ustransplant.org/.

About URREA

The University Renal Research and Education Association, a not-for-profit organization, conducts research to improve patient lives. URREA has a unique combination of expertise in designing and executing research studies that include primary data collection, developing large clinical databases, and state-of-the-art statistical analyses. Additional information is available at http://www.urrea.org/.

About UMHS

The University of Michigan Health System has a tradition of excellence in patient care, teaching and research. The Health System comprises the U-M Medical School and its Faculty Group Practice, three U-M hospitals, community health centers, more than 100 outpatient clinics, the M-CARE HMO, the Michigan Health Corp and numerous research institutes and centers.

Contact: Sarah Miller
University Renal Research and Education Association
+1 734 665 4108 ext. 267
srtr@urrea.org

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