23 October 2017
ISMETT reaches 2,000 transplant milestone
ISMETT IRCCS performs its 2,000th transplant (this number includes 211 pediatric transplants). The news was given on Saturday November 21st, 2017 on the day of the visit at ISMETT of Italian Minister of Health, Ms. Beatrice Lorenzin.
During her visit Ms. Lorenzin saw ISMETT’s intensive care unit that currently hosts a patient who recently received an artificial heart (VAD), and five patients on extracorporeal oxygenation (ECMO), a procedure that allows ISMETT to save lives throughout Southern Italy with the support of Sicily’s 911 Service.
“I have the highest consideration for ISMETT,” said Ms. Lorenzin, “whose excellence is recognized both nationally and internationally. It should also be remembered that ISMETT is the only hospital in 4 years to have received from my ministry the status of IRCCS. We must be proud of ISMETT, a center of reference and a state-of-the-art facility. The accomplishments and successes of ISMETT are once again confirmed by this 2,000th transplant.”
As of today, ISMETT has performed 1,118 liver transplants (of which 120 from living donors), 472 kidney transplants (of which 188 from living donors), 162 heart transplants, 152 lung transplants, 39 combined transplants, 5 pancreas transplants, and 52 VAD implants. Transplant #2,000 was a liver transplant performed on a 54-year-old Sicilian man last Thursday thanks to a donation from Cannizzaro Hospital in Catania.
Regional Health Commissioner Baldo Gucciardi expressed his appreciation: “ISMETT’s 2,000th transplant is an outstanding result that places Sicily at the highest national levels in terms of quality and volumes. This is a further confirmation of the value of ISMETT for regional and national healthcare and research. The Regional Health Commission and the Italian Ministry of Health have worked in synergy to promote and support organ donation and ensure the recognition of ISMETT-IRCCS in the context of the Sicilian healthcare and of the national research network.”
Since its opening ISMETT has become one of the most advanced multiorgan transplant centers, with graft and patient survival rates that are at the same level of the top international centers.
“The 2,000th transplant,” said Angelo Luca, CEO of ISMETT-IRCCS, “is an extremely important milestone for us, achieved thanks to the extensive experience of all professionals working at ISMETT. The partnership with UPMC, in charge of the management of ISMETT and a world leader in the field of transplantation, has brought to Palermo the experience and expertise gained in international universities, hospitals, and research centers. This extraordinary result is achieved on ISMETT’s 20th anniversary. ISMETT is well integrated within the regional and national health systems and is a reference center for other countries in the Mediterranean area and beyond. For this reason, I believe our success is a success also for the regional and national healthcare systems, achieved thanks to the full support of all institutions and to the collaboration with the Regional Transplant Center (CRT) and with all professionals working in other hospitals.”
ISMETT was established in 1997 as a multiorgan transplant center. In 2014, Minister Lorenzin granted ISMETT the status of IRCCS, making it a state-accredited research hospital in the field of end-stage organ failure treatment and research: an acknowledgement of the excellence of ISMETT in developing biomedical research, education, quality care, and health care management. ISMETT was the first hospital in Southern Italy to receive accreditation from Joint Commission International (JCI). ISMETT was also one of the first hospitals in Italy to implement the electronic medical record and to adopt a Business Intelligence system. The recent integration between the boards of directors of ISMETT and of Ri.MED Foundation, established by the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers in 2006 and about to start building a Biomedical Research and Biotechnology Center near Palermo, is giving a new impulse to the activity, and to the social and economic impact of these two important institutions.