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If you ever find yourself  needing an organ transplant, you probably will consider yourself very lucky to find a donor match. Unfortunately, many folks in those shoes aren’t so fortunate, and die before a matching donor organ is identified. So clearly, anything that can be done to cast a greater net over potentially matching donor organs is a very welcome development.

Even if you do find a match, you will likely be faced with taking immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of your life to combat organ rejection, which in turn increases your susceptibility to a variety of complications, including infection, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. And even then, your body may still reject your new organ.

But in what is hailed as a potential game changer in transplantation science, a small preliminary study suggests that both issues can potentially be addressed by transplanting stem cells from the organ donor to the recipient.

The study, recently published in journal Science Translational Medicine, tested the ability of donor stem cells to trick the recipient’s immune system into treating their new kidney, received from the same donor, as their own, ultimately saving both the organ from rejection and the patient from having to take immunosuppressants.

All of the 8 patients in the study received kidneys that were “less than perfect” matches; that is not necessarily unusual, but they faced a major uphill battle in preventing rejection. But what is unusual is that 2 days after the kidney transplant, they also received an infusion of immune cells bioengineered from the donor. And amazingly, 5 of those patients were able to discontinue their use of immunosuppressants completely after a year.

Furthermore, they show no signs of organ rejection during follow-ups 6 to 20 months after stopping those drugs.

While experts find this a very enticing development, it is not yet clear if these patients’ acceptance of their new organs will translate into a lack of early warning capabilities to detect other foreign bodies, like infections or malignancies. Furthermore, it is also a very small pilot study, and much follow-up study is needed. But 2 pioneering transplant surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital say it “may potentially have an enormous, paradigm-shifting impact on solid-organ transplantation.” That’s great news.

Guest editor:  Dave Schlosser, Patient Navigator LLC

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According to an analysis by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, about 1% of the privately insured population drives about 25% of overall health costs. Their total medical bills average approximately $100,000 per year for hospital stays, prescriptions, doctor and ER visits, etc. As you might expect, many of these folks are in the final stages of life, but many of them simply have chronic health issues like high blood pressure or diabetes. People with chronic conditions filled 78% of all prescriptions, and costs incurred through outpatient care actually comprises the largest share of overall spending.

As an example, the annual cost of effectively managing diabetes typically averages about $12,000, but can quickly approach $102,000 if it rages out of control and the patient experiences complications such as heart attack, stroke, poor vision, or limb amputation.

Right now, many of these chronic issues are considered “pre-existing conditions”, and can serve as the basis for an insurer to deny coverage. But starting in 2014, when the new federal health care law is expected to go into effect, insurers will no longer be able to do this. Ideally, this ultimately gives insurers incentive to make sure their current customers do not reach that 1%, and they are starting to implement ways to do that, such as providing additional means to help manage chronic conditions and provide wellness incentives. But they are also evaluating different ways of compensating physicians, such as paying them more to coordinate care and developing ways for them to share in savings achieved when a patient avoids a hospital admission through better treatment.

Regardless of what may happen over the next few years, however, one thing is clear: the current model of health care insurance is changing.

Guest Editor:  Dave Schlosser, Patien Navigator LLC

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