Mission: Northwestern University Transplant Outcomes Research Collaborative (NUTORC) is a collaboration of forward-thinking clinicians and researchers from seemingly disparate disciplines to guide high impact, innovative, health data-driven transplant outcomes research. Our mission is to be a highly productive and nationally recognized research hub that conducts collaborative transplant outcomes research, establishes best transplant practices, guides transplant policy, increases transplantation and services and provides a fertile environment to mentor and educate early-career investigators.

Vision: Our vision is to become a nexus for health data-driven outcomes research that informs best transplant practices, guides policy, and increases transplantation.

About Us: Directed by Dr. Daniela Ladner, NUTORC concentrates on exploring the vast amounts of data involved in the health systems process for patients who are in end-stage kidney and liver disease or at any point of the organ transplantation process and how this data can influence patient outcomes. NUTORC strives to build research capacity in health data-driven outcomes and addressing issues in transplantation from a learning health systems perspective by strategically growing a transdisciplinary team of scholars.

NUTORC builds upon the existing strengths of the transplant program at Northwestern and has created highly productive inter-school, multi-departmental, and trans-disciplinary collaborative initiatives. We bring together clinicians, health services and outcomes researchers and investigators with specific expertise in state-of-the art research methodologies to address pertinent questions in transplantation. Initiated in late 2008, these initiatives have already led to collaborative grant funding through NIH (National Institute of Health), AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality), NSF (National Science Foundation) and HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration), in addition to other funding sources. To date, NUTORC has published close to 550 peer-reviewed manuscripts as a result of collaborative work.

Currently, we have developed strengths in qualitative and quantitative research related to transplant over the years in close collaboration with experts outside of transplantation. Some of our ongoing projects include:

Quantitative:
- Optimization of organ allocation and organ use (Sanjay Mehrotra, PhD, John Friedewald, MD, Daniela Ladner, MD, MPH)
- Comparative effectiveness studies in liver and kidney transplantation (Lihui Zhao, PhD, Michael Ison, MD)
- Population based studies using aggregated EHR data (Abel Kho, MD, Daniela Ladner, MD, MPH, Josh Levitsky, MD)
- Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction, prevention and treatment approaches in patients with chronic liver disease (Lisa VanWagner, MD, MSc, Donald Lloyd-Jones, MD, ScM)
- Large data sets/artificial intelligence and data quality in transplant (Ronald Ackermann, MD, MPH, Yuan Luo, PhD, Sanjay Mehrotra, PhD, Bing Ho, MD, MPH, Daniela Ladner, MD, MPH, Josh Levitsky, MD, Sook Hyeon Park, MD, Nikhilesh Mazumder, MD, John Friedewald, MD)
- Neurological issues in transplantation, i.e. hepatic encephalopathy (Eric Liotta, MD, Minjee Kim, MD)
- Infections in transplant recipients (Michael Ison, MD)
- Aging and transplant (Lihui Zhao, PhD)
- NASH Cirrhosis (Mary Rinella, MD)
- Hepatocellular carcinoma (Laura Kulik, MD)

Qualitative:
- Reducing ethnic disparity and improving informed consent in vulnerable populations (Elisa Gordon, PhD, MPH, Dinee Simpson, MD, Juan Caicedo, MD)
- Medication adherence for patients on immunosuppressive drugs (Michael Wolf, PhD, MPH, Daniela Ladner, MD, MPH)
- Reduction of medical errors and patient safety in transplantation (Donna Woods, PhD, Daniela Ladner, MD, MPH, Jane Holl, MD, MPH)
- Assessment of personality in patients with end-stage liver disease (Daniel Mroczek, PhD, John Peipert, PhD)
- Development and validation of patient reported outcomes to understanding quality of life in transplant patients (John Peipert, PhD, Zeeshan Butt, PhD, David Cella, PhD)

Collaborations and Activities: NUTORC supports activities that strengthen collaborations across several disciplines and analytic methodologies. We are highly interested in collaborations with experts in transplantation medicine, data science, artificial intelligence, and biostatistics. Activities which connect across the Chicago and Evanston campuses are prioritized. We invite you to join us on this exciting path of collaborative work through NUTORC and our mission to define a new era in transplant outcomes research.

For additional information or interest in collaboration, please contact NUTORC Program Coordinator Corinne Loftus.

For additional information download the NUTORC Brochure.

NUCTRIBE brings together researchers in transplant-related immunology and biomedical engineering who are working on immune tolerance, virus latency and reactivation, dendritic cell and Th-17 immunobiology, islet cell transplantation, tissue engineering, and many other fields. These researchers are building on successful individual research projects to build broad transdisciplinary collaborations that intend to solve the greatest challenges facing transplantation research. Faculty are interested in ideas for program and other large-scale grant opportunities that capitalize on Northwestern’s strengths across departments and schools.

Directors

Joseph Leventhal, MD, PhD

Jason Wertheim, MD, PhD

NUCTRIBE Collaborative Relationships Among Faculty in Basic Science Disciplines

For additional information download the NUCTRIBE Brochure.

Members of the Chicago Transplant Ethics Consortium (CTEC) have been meeting regularly since June 2003 for topical case review and deliberation in order to better understand and meaningfully respond to ethical issues in organ transplantation on a local, regional, national, and international level. This interdisciplinary group has a diverse membership comprised of voluntary individuals from various disciplines and institutions with a common interest in the evolving social and ethical aspects of organ transplantation. The consortium includes physicians and nurses from various medical disciplines including but not limited to transplantation, social workers, ethicists and philosophers as well as recipients and living donors. Members include health care professionals and administrators from both adult and pediatric transplant programs. CTEC Brochure