By Jim Warren 2007 will go down in history as the year when meeting strict new government-mandated regulations to be Medicare-approved and assuring the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) that patient listing policies meet their requirements are as important to the nation’s transplant programs as dealing with patients who need life-saving transplants.  In order [Sign in to read the full article...]

Former Dallas Cowboys running back Ron Springs has been hospitalized in a coma, more than seven months after receiving a kidney donated by ex-teammate Everson Walls, the Associated Press reports. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused Springs to lapse into a coma or when he was hospitalized. In February, Walls donated his kidney to the [Sign in to read the full article...]

In the 10 months since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration licensed the first blood-screening test for Chagas’ disease, some 241 blood donations in the United States have tested positive, according to data released Saturday at the annual meeting of American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). Chagas’-positive donations have been reported in 34 states with [Sign in to read the full article...]

Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis are teaming up to expand the practice of kidney swapping, creating a national blueprint for long-distance transplants, the Associated Press reports. For months now, transplant teams at the hospitals have been comparing and analyzing each other’s lists of people who need kidneys [Sign in to read the full article...]

Researchers at the University of Manchester in England have transformed fat tissue stem cells into nerve cells, and now plan to develop an artificial nerve that could bring damaged limbs and organs back to life, according to a University news release. In a study published in the October issue of the journal Experimental Neurology, Dr. [Sign in to read the full article...]