Celebrating 50 years of Kidney and Pancreatic Transplant leadership

With a 50-year legacy in kidney and pancreas transplantation, Augusta University Health continues to be a leading medical center in transplant care for patients throughout the southeast.

With a multi-disciplinary health care team at the helm of the work, AU Health’s Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program has helped thousands, and many of those patients, donors and families will have the opportunity to meet each other during the program’s 50th anniversary celebration. This event will be held at 10 a.m. Sept. 29 at the J. Harold Harrison, MD Education Commons on the university’s Health Sciences Campus, and will include patient testimonials and a meet-and-greet with past and present staff.

“I am proud to work with a caring, knowledgeable and dedicated team that understands the huge impact transplantation can have on a patient and their entire family,” said Dr. Todd Merchen, section chief of Adult and Pediatric Transplant Surgery in the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. “We are so grateful to have opportunities like this to acknowledge our patients, their families and our medical team. After 50 years, this event gives us a wonderful opportunity to consider again our ultimate goal and driving motivation — to provide our patients with the longest and best quality of life we possibly can.”

Since 1968, AU Health has performed over 2,600 kidney and pancreas transplants, and the program was able to expand its efforts with the opening of the 14,000-square-foot Carlos and Marguerite Mason Solid Organ Transplant Center in 2017. This multi-million dollar facility — made possible by a financial contribution from the Carlos and Marguerite Mason Trust — doubled the capacity for transplant evaluations and ongoing care to patients.

As a result of the program’s work throughout the years, the medical center was one of 19 hospitals in the United States, and the only medical center in Georgia, to be selected to take part in the initial Collaborative Innovation and Improvement Network that aims to improve kidney transplantation nationwide.

About AU Health’s Transplant Program

• Performed its first transplant on Aug. 28, 1968
• Provides services for adult and pediatric patients
• Participates in kidney paired donation programs
• Is the only kidney transplant center in Georgia outside of Atlanta
• Is the home of the 14,000-square-foot Carlos and Marguerite Mason Solid Organ Transplant Center
• Offers satellite clinic locations and outreach efforts in Georgia and South Carolina for pre-transplant evaluation testing and post-transplant follow-up care
• Houses the Medication Assistance Program (MAP) within the solid organ transplant center to provide medication support for transplant recipients

Learn more about the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant services at AU Health or call 706-721-2888.