PHILADELPHIA — On Thursday, Penn Medicine Kidney Transplant Program faculty, staff and patients will join together to celebrate a milestone and honor Penn’s first and 5000th kidney transplant recipients. These two special patients represent nearly 40 years of medical advances in the effort to improve organ transplantation procedures and outcomes.
Established in 1966, the Penn Medicine Kidney Transplant Program, part of the Penn Transplant Institute’s multi-organ transplant center at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, performs more than 200 adult kidney transplants each year. It is the largest and most experienced kidney transplant program in the region.
Penn Medicine is the 14th transplant center in the United States to reach the 5000th kidney transplant milestone, and the first in the region.
WHAT: |
The Penn Medicine Kidney Transplant Program celebrates 5000th kidney transplant milestone |
WHERE: |
Biomedical Research Building
421 Curie Boulevard
14th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Media parking available in front of the Clinical Research Building (CRB) at 415 Curie Blvd. MAP |
WHEN:
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Thursday, November 21, 2013
5:30 – 8:00 PM; remarks starting at 6:15 p.m. |
WHO: |
- Roy Bloom, MD, Director Kidney/Pancreas Program
- Abraham Shaked, MD, PhD, Director, Penn Transplant Institute
- Clyde F. Barker, MD, Donald Guthrie Professor of Surgery, on highlights of the kidney transplant program's milestones
- Joe Mehl and Howard Mehl – Penn Medicine’s first kidney transplant patients. More than 40 years ago, in February of 1966, Joe gave his brother Howard a lifesaving kidney.
- Kevin and Karen Tickner – Penn Medicine’s 5000th kidney transplant patients. In May 2013, as part of the world’s second largest paired kidney exchange – including 28 pairs of donors and recipients from across the country – Kevin donated a kidney to a patient in need, so his wife Karen could receive a life-saving kidney from a donor in California.
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Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.