A gift to the Department of Surgery helps our physicians and scientists find new treatments and cures for serious diseases.
Maurice Galante, M.D., a legendary master surgeon at UCSF and renaissance man, died on February 5, 2013. His career is memorialized by the Maurice Galante Lecture Program and Maurice Galante Distinguished Professorship.
John Roberts is a professor of surgery at UCSF and Chief of the Division of Transplantation. After receiving his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego, Dr. Roberts completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Washington, Cornell University and the University of Minnesota. Dr. Roberts supervises medical students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows. He has received awards from the residents for his teaching efforts. He is active in health policy regarding transplantation and is a member of professional and public service organizations related to this field.
Highly respected by his peers, Dr. Roberts was named to the list of U.S. News "America's Top Doctors," a distinction reserved for the top 1% of physicians in the nation for a given specialty. Dr. Roberts serves on numerous national committees related to his expertise on organ distribution. He frequently delivers presentations on topics involving transplantation science and the management of surgical patients.Dr. Roberts is also an active clinician, treating patients on the UCSF Transplant Service.
Liver cancer patients
in need of an organ transplant often face a cruel reality -- while
waiting for a deceased-donor liver, their cancer may worsen,
spreading to other organs and making them ineligible for a
transplant. With two children to raise and time ticking down, Amy
Baghdadi was fast running out of options. But at her daughter's
soccer practice, a fellow parent, who happened to be UCSF
transplant surgeon, Andrew
Posselt, M.D., Ph.D., heard Amy's story, and convinced there
were other options to explore, referred her to the UCSF Liver
Transplant Center. Then, a life-changing gift from a family friend,
Olivia Lemen, enabled Amy to undergo a life saving living-donor
liver transplant performed by UCSF transplant surgeons Nancy Ascher,
M.D., Ph.D., and John Roberts,
M.D. The video
tells the moving story of the "The Gift".
John P. Roberts, M.D., Professor and Chief of Transplant Surgery and the Organ Transplant Service at UCSF, has been elected President of the National Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN/UNOS) Board of Directors. Roberts will serve a one-year term beginning in late June 2012.
In its most recent survey, U.S. News in collaboration with Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. listed twenty-five (25) surgeons in the UCSF Department of Surgery, nearly one-third (1/3) of the clinical faculty, on the list of U.S. News "Top Doctors". The list, compiled from the opinion of colleagues, denotes the top 10% of physicians within a region practicing a given specialty. Fifteen of the 25 department surgeons were also named by their peers to the list of America's Top Doctors (ATD), a distinction reserved for the top 1% of physicians in the nation for that specialty. The listings are published online at U.S. News. The group rankings are intended to guide patients in selecting a doctor and physicians in making specialty referrals.
Claus Niemann, MD, Associate Professor in the UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care and co-Director of the Ischemic Organ Injury Lab (pictured left), has been awarded a $2 million grant by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to improve outcomes in organ donor transplantation. The grant award also included collaborators John Feiner, MD, Ryutaro Hirose, MD, and John Roberts, MD, chief of the UCSF Division of Transplant Surgery, the California Transplant Donor Network and Darren Malinoski, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The innovative project is designed to determine the optimal management of organ donors before the procurement operation occurs. Research in this area has been hindered by numerous obstacles including the logistical challenges of conducting research in large hospitals in California and northern Nevada.
Dr. John Roberts, UCSF professor and chief of transplant surgery, has been elected vice president/president-elect of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN/UNOS) Board of Directors. Roberts will serve a one-year term beginning in June 2011 and will become the organization's president in June 2012.
"John Roberts, M.D., chief of the UCSF Transplant Service and a leading expert in liver transplant surgery for adults and children, recently talked with Andrew Schorr of Patient Power about the risks and benefits of living donor liver transplant surgery. Liver transplants provide patients a chance for a longer, more active life in the final stages of liver disease or end-stage liver disease. At UCSF Medical Center, the majority of organs for transplantation are obtained from people who have died and whose families have given permission for their organs to be donated. But today, an increasing number of liver transplants are performed with portions of livers donated by a living relative or friend."
UCSF Medical Center's Liver Transplant Program exceeded all standards for adult transplants in an annual review by the Kaiser Permanente National Transplant Network. Outcomes data, including national benchmarks of the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), were used in the review. Dr. Ronald Potts, quality performance medical director at Kaiser, recognized UCSF for the "statistically high patient and graft survival outcomes." UCSF outcomes for adults have been consistently higher than national averages. For example, liver transplant patients at UCSF Medical Center have a survival rate of 94 percent after a year, compared to the national rate of 91 percent. In a letter to Dr. John Roberts, chief of the UCSF Transplant Service, Potts said, "Our collaborative efforts continue to provide Kaiser Permanente members with the best possible transplant care and service." UCSF has had a contract with Kaiser to perform liver transplants since 1988. Kaiser patients account for about 60 of UCSF's 150 liver transplants a year.
"One-year survival rates for patients receiving heart, liver and lung transplants at UCSF Medical Center exceed national averages at statistically significant levels, according to new data compiled by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR)."
"A difficult conundrum for the nation's transplant patients was aired September 22 when the news program California Connected featured UCSF's Liver Transplant Program. The story, produced by Jon Dann for public television stations KQED and KCET, highlights the difficult choices that patients, families and doctors face because of the shortage of donated organs for transplantation."
"Of all the things for a married couple to bicker about, Nancy Ascher and John Roberts have hit on a first -- a pulsing human liver. To be precise, they are standing forehead to forehead with a man splayed out between them. Roberts wants more of his liver to take next door to a waiting recipient. Ascher wants more of it left behind for the donor's recovery."