Support/Educational Meetings
Since transplant is stressful, it’s a good idea for patients, both before and after transplant, to develop a support system. This helps patients feel that they’re not alone, and keeps them up-to-date on transplant issues. Albert Einstein Medical Center holds monthly support group meetings. Einstein also offers a “Buddy” program where people who are on the waiting list or thinking about being placed on the waiting list, are put in touch with someone who has had a transplant. Their “buddy” becomes an additional resource to turn to with questions and concerns.

Additional Community Activities
Additional ways Einstein’s Kidney Transplant Program stays involved with patients, family members and the transplant community, is through the Annual Transplant Walk/Run sponsored by the Gift of Life Donor Program. Einstein sponsors a team for the event. Einstein also participates in the Transplant Olympics for transplant recipients, which are also sponsored by Gift of Life.

Special Amenities
To make things easier for patients and their families, particularly if they live out of the Philadelphia area, there is the Hospitality House located on the grounds of Albert Einstein Medical Center. Instead of staying at a hotel which can be miles away from the hospital and costly, family members and friends of patients can stay at the Hospitality House for just $ 25. per night. Rooms include kitchenettes for convenience.

Clinical Research
Einstein Medical Center physicians and scientists have a long and distinguished record of groundbreaking laboratory and patient-based research in kidney and kidney/pancreas transplantation.

• In 1987, Einstein's Kidney Transplant Program successfully performed the first ABO-Incompatible kidney transplant. This milestone was based on the completion of landmark research in the area of crossing the ABO blood barrier in matching and transplanting kidneys. Since the first breakthrough, the transplant team has been expanding this program. This work helped to establish the basis for animal-to-human transplant trials and furthered scientific knowledge on kidney matching. Research from Albert Einstein Bone and Mineral Metabolism Laboratory has also advanced the knowledge of post-transplant bone disease.
• In 1984, Albert Einstein Medical Center initiated laboratory research that eventually led to the establishment of a clinical pancreas transplantation program. Since then, the transplant team's top researchers have developed an unduplicated technique of exocrine drainage that has dramatically decreased the incidence of post-operative complications without compromising long-term results.
• Since 1993, we have been studying in the laboratory the protective action of different drugs on Ischemia Reperfusion Injury in Pancreas Transplantation.
• The transplant team continually participate in protocols testing a wide variety of immunosuppressant drugs.

Additional Resources
There are many resources for those with kidney disease. We recommend the following organizations for more information about kidney disease and transplantation.

National Kidney Foundation
30 East 33rd Street
New York, NY 10016
(800) 622-9010
(212) 889-2210

Gift of Life Donor Program
Rodin Place, 2000 Hamilton Street
Suite 201
Philadelphia, PA 19103
888-DONORS-1 (888-366-6771)
(215) 557-8090

United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)
700 North 4th Street
Richmond, VA 23219
(800)292-9548 or (804) 782-4800

Or check these web sites: National Kidney Foundation

Gift of Life Donor Program

United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

ikidney.com

For more information about Einstein Center for Kidney Disease, or to make an appointment with one of our physicians or surgeons, call 1-800-EINSTEIN.