Page 9 - SFHN0120FINALUF.qxp_SFHN 0608 Friday 5.0

University of Miami Miller School Cover Story: Nova Southeastern’s Complex

of Medicine Study Shows Increased Health Systems Program Training Future

Transplant Organ Availability Leaders to be Agents of Change

Largely Due to Opioid Deaths Continued from page 1
Florida to find a solution to today’s portion that can be taken online or
Researchers at the more deceased donors healthcare issues. onsite on evenings or weekends, and a
University of Miami’s Miller nationwide in 2018 than “Healthcare systems are very complex, second set of courses focused on health
School of Medicine have 2009. Using the same and don’t work well in the U.S. or any- systems that is offered exclusively onsite
found that the increased years for comparison, the where in the world, for that matter,” said on Saturdays.
availability of transplant number of drug-related Dr. Sainfort. “You may hear that France “Almost all of our students are work-
organs over the past decade deaths increased by or Canada has a better system, but they ing professionals and can’t take tradi-
was mostly caused by the 2,752. By contrast, the all have problems. tional weekday courses, so we designed
opioid crisis. The study was number of non-drug- “Issues in the U.S. include an aging this program so that they can complete
published in the journal related donations de - population, the burden of chronic dis- it while working full-time,” said Dr.
Clinical Transplant. creased, with a notable ease, and a payment and delivery system Sainfort.
“The data suggests the decline in deaths from with misaligned incentives that doesn’t The program is still evolving, and the
increase in organ availability stroke. lead to the best possible care at the best health systems courses will also be
is not due to large scale sys- Drug-related donation possible prices,” he added. “It is highly offered online in the future, with the
tematic improvements in the increases were most pro- fragmented and disconnected, leading to goal of having this in place by 2021.
procurement system,” said Dr. David Goldberg nounced in the North - inefficient, uncoordinated care and a “One of the benefits of this program is
associate professor David east, Southeast and waste of resources. We have the best that students will be exposed to and
Goldberg, M.D., a transplant hepatolo- Midwest, reflecting the crisis acuity in technology in the world, but there are understand the entire complex spectrum
gist at the University of Miami’s Miller those regions. For some organ procure- still issues with quality, accessibility, and of the value chain in healthcare; from
School of Medicine and co-author on the ment organizations (OPOs), volume cost.” bench research when a drug is created to
paper. “On the national level, it is almost increased by more than a 100%. Still, While healthcare needs to change, at delivery of care at the bedside or at
exclusively a byproduct of this ongoing those increases did not always mirror the same time, the demands on health- home,” said Dr. Sainfort, adding that the
tragedy. These are families and donors regional drug-related death rates, point- care leaders are shifting, which requires program works with the Center for
who saved lives in a final act of generos- ing to potential faults in local organ pro- creative leaders with advanced knowl- Collaborative Research to expose stu-
ity. These transplants are lifesaving and curement systems. edge and skills who can find real solu- dents to research projects as a way to see
we should honor -never diminish or mis- The researchers were particularly con- tions, according to Dr. Sainfort. “We how ideas move from research and
label - the circumstances of any donor’s cerned that undercounting drug deaths need to train future leaders to be agents development to translation and com-
gift.” would create the false sense that dona- of change,” he explained. mercialization.
While previous research probed the tion increases were generated by One of the things that sets Nova’s pro- “We also emphasize the continuum of
link between drug-related deaths and increased OPO effectiveness. In some gram apart is that it was designed with care, beginning with prevention and
organ availability, these studies took cases, that was true. The OPO in Nevada the input of the people who work in wellness, all the way to tertiary care,
cause of death codes at face value. In saw a 202.3% increase in donors, with healthcare every day. “I’ve spent 34 years post-acute care, and long-term care,”
some cases, intravenous drug users were only 41.4% coming from drug-related in academia, and I can say that sadly, said Dr. Sainfort. “The continuum is
coded as having died from drug intoxica- deaths. when most programs are designed, fac- extremely disconnected and fragmented,
tion. Others were coded for asphyxiation Goldberg and Lynch feel the OPO ulty members get together and decide and we want our students to be able to
or heart attack, despite their drug use. community needs to better understand what they think should be taught,” said bring about coordinated systems that
Goldberg and co-author Raymond why Nevada and others are doing so Dr. Sainfort. “We decided to listen to the maximize value and minimize costs.
Lynch, assistant professor at Emory well. They hope these results will inspire industry and see what they needed.” They also need to understand social
University School of Medicine, thought an honest review and ongoing conversa- Faculty and program designers met determinants of care so that they can
it was important to probe beyond the tion among OPOs to identify the most with CEOs of large hospital systems, deliver care in an equitable way, regard-
codes and understand underlying causes. effective ways to increase transplant entrepreneurs, and creators of pharma- less of a patient’s gender, ethnicity, or
“We felt that just looking at the mech- organ availability. ceutical and medical devices, and asked social or economic status.”
anism was undercounting the role of the “Everyone should share best practices what type of people they wanted to see When students graduate from the pro-
drug epidemic,” said Goldberg. “When and help other organizations that have leading healthcare organizations. They gram, they will be trained to take posi-
we looked at those donors who died not seen the same increases, despite also established an advisory board to tions in any organization and play a sig-
from another mechanism, they looked being in an area that has seen a similar suggest additions to the program, con- nificant role in the healthcare ecosys-
very similar to those coded for drug impact from the opioid epidemic,” said tinually review it, and interact with stu- tem, according to Dr. Sainfort, who
intoxication. We saw 20, 30, 40-year- Goldberg. “We can’t let the increase from dents and faculty. added that one of the program’s first
olds who had a cardiovascular death and opioid deaths be a detriment because it “We want them to tell us whether graduates has already accepted a posi-
also happened to be using drugs.” prevents broader scale improvements in we’re doing it right, and to suggest tion as the Division Senior Director at
The study found there were 2,700 the OPO community.” adjustments as needed,” said Dr. HCA East Florida.
Sainfort.
The two-year program consists of two For more information, visit
sets of courses; core classes for the MBA www.nova.edu or call (954) 262-5119.

South Florida Hospital News southfloridahospitalnews.com January 2020 9