Marcelo Pando Rigal, PhD (left)
and Bruce Kaplan, MD
RENEWED
HOPE
Accelerated efforts and new leadership
in transplantation services help extend
and increase the quality of life for
patients with end-stage organ failure.
aylor Scott & White Health
has made great strides to
become the leading provider
of organ transplant services in Central
Texas. The transplant program is
now set for even greater achievements
with the arrival of new clinical and
laboratory leadership. Its new leader
is Bruce Kaplan, MD, who comes to
the health care system from the Mayo
Clinic in Arizona. Dr. Kaplan is an
international authority in transplant
medicine and has over 300 peer-
reviewed publications as well as serving
as Deputy Editor for the American
Journal of Transplantation, the premier
journal in transplant. Before his
tenure at Mayo Clinic, he led several
prestigious transplant institutes and
has received more than $40 million
in research funding throughout his
distinguished career. Dr. Kaplan joins
Baylor Scott & White Health – Central
Texas as vice president for transplant
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THE CATALYST Fall 17 | bswhealth.com
services. He arrived in May and has
set high goals for the transplant team.
“We want to be the most clinically
innovative center in Texas and one
of the true clinical innovators in the
country,” he says. “We also want to
be considered the center that treats
patients with the greatest compassion
and respect.” He has a team in place
who share his vision, and is putting
together the additional resources to
help realize it.
A transplant program is a major
undertaking for a health system, and
requires a large investment. About 100
people make up the support system
or the “infrastructure” as Dr. Kaplan
calls it. Beyond the surgeons who
perform the transplants, the group
includes cardiologists, nephrologists
and other physicians, coordinators,
specialty trained transplant nurses,
lab technicians, nutritionists, social
workers, financial assistants, and many
others. Dr. Kaplan oversees teams
of clinicians who provide kidney,
pancreas, and heart transplants to
patients with end-stage organ failure.
Corneal and blood stem cell transplants
are also available.
The
organ
transplantation
program is expected to grow in the
future, driven by innovative initiatives
and, hopefully, an increase in organ
donations. Providing organ transplant
services in Temple offers hope to
patients with failing organs, says
Department of Surgery Chairman
Harry Papaconstantinou, MD. “End-
stage organ disease—congestive heart
failure, kidney failure, and also chronic
diabetes with pancreatic failure—can
be very debilitating or even fatal for
patients,” he says. “Providing an
opportunity for transplantation can
actually give people a new lease on
life, and can give them a much better
quality of life.”