Initiatives

Transplant Diagnostic CoP: Initiatives

Goals

Establish membership

• Announcement of Tx Dx CoP establishment via blast emails to community through:
• Banff, NephroNet, ISHLT, IPITA, RPS, USCAP, ASHI, ESOT, European Working Group for Nephropathology, European Pathology Society
• Identify members in the above organizations who are not yet AST members and encourage them to join the AST
• Invitation to welcome reception at 2011 ATC

Develop website

• EC, founding members, new members
• Scope of the Tx Dx CoP
• ASHI news and activities, Banff news and activities, ISHLT Pathology council activities - links to the websites of these organizations 

Develop educational sessions for transplant clinicians not involved in diagnostics but dependent on diagnostics, i.e. improving the communication between the disciplines involved in managing the transplant patient Potential educational formats for discuss

1. ATC Pre-Meeting Symposia “Transplantation diagnostics for the clinician”
   • Histopathological diagnosis of allograft rejection I: Kidney, Liver, Pancreas
   • Histopathological diagnosis of allograft rejection II: Heart, Lung, Skin
   • Recurrent diseases in kidney allografts
   • Recurrent diseases in liver allografts
   • HLA typing for the clinician: methods, platforms and interpretation
   • Antibody monitoring and diagnostics post transplantation
   • Infectious Disease diagnostics
   • Diagnostics of post-immunosuppression complications: Malignancies, PTLD
   • Drug monitoring post transplantation
   • Molecular diagnostics in transplantation pathology
   • Non-invasive monitoring of the transplant patient
2. ATC Early Morning Clinico-Pathological Conference “Diagnostic Challenges in Transplantation”
   • Under a CPC format 2-3 diagnostically challenging cases will be presented and discussed by a clinician and his diagnostic partners.
3. ATC – TxDxCoP lecture: Diagnostic classifications annual update
   • The TxDxCoP Executive Committee will prepare for every ATC a summary presentation of all clinically relevant changes and developments in all areas of diagnostic classification systems. This would represent a cutting-edge essence of all developments in transplant diagnostics.

Establish framework criteria for development, validation and quality assurance of diagnostic standards in transplantation

Diagnostic classifications should be based on the following criteria:

• Reproducible
• Data-driven, evidence based
• Generated in multicentre approaches
• Feasible in daily practice for both, those who render and report the diagnosis and those who receive reports
• Discriminate diagnostic, prognostic (disease stage and activity), and therapeutic value

Build network with existing, affiliated organizations like:

• AST Infectious Diseases CoP, Banff working group for allograft pathology, NephroNet, ISHLT, IPITA, RPS, USCAP, ASHI, ESOT, European Working Group for Nephropathology, European Pathology Society
• Build network of researchers working on potential new diagnostic approaches like molecular tests, non-invasive biomarkers, and drug monitoring.

Support training of fellows in the area of transplant diagnostics through networking and communication of diagnostic standards development and validation of diagnostic criteria.