To: Region 7 Members

To: Region 7 Members

From: Julie Heimbach, MD

Region 7 Councillor

Subject: Region 7 Meeting Information and Agenda

Date: August 10, 2016

General Meeting Information

The next Region 7 meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 15, from10:00 a.m.- 3:30 p.m., at the Chicago O’Hare Airport Hilton.Please make arrangements to attend the entire meeting as there are 12 items out for public comment. A continental breakfast and buffet lunch will be provided at the meeting.

The liver program directors will meet just prior to the regional meeting from 9:00-10:00 a.m. The goal for this meeting is to discuss in more detail the NLRB proposal and the proposed HCC policy revisions, so that detailed questions from the liver members can be addressed. Key concerns will be summarized for the entire group at the regional meeting and then we will plan to move to a vote unless new concerns are raised. The redistricting proposal will be presented and discussed during the full regional meeting, given the impact on OPO and other regional members besides liver programs.

For those of you who require overnight accommodations, UNOS was able to negotiate an overnight room rate at the Hilton of $157.00 per night. Please call the hotel directly at 877-865-5322, to make room reservations under the group name United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). The deadline to make a reservation under the negotiated rate is September 4, 2016.

Beginning August 15, twelve public comment proposals and three white papers will be available for your review on the OPTN website ( under the “governance” tab.Your individual comments are greatly valued by committee members (your peers) who are working diligently to develop these proposals. Members are encouraged to submit feedback on the proposals on the OPTN website at the following link:

During the regional meeting, the official OPTN/UNOS Representative or Alternate may vote on behalf of an institution, or an individual may be designated a proxy. Letters designating a proxy can be emailed to Betsy Gans at UNOS () or submitted at the meeting registration table.

Regional Business Meeting

A draft meeting agenda is posted on the Transplant Pro website at the following link:

The regional meeting agenda has two sections: discussion and non-discussion.

Discussion Section

Proposals on the discussion section of the agenda will be presented by the regional representatives to OPTN/UNOS committees, discussed, and voted upon at the regional meeting.

Non-discussion (ND) Section

The Regional Councillors and Administrators selected public comment proposals for the ND agenda that are expected to have a minimal impact on the transplant community and are anticipated to generate minimal regional discussion. The ND agenda was developed to remove proposals that are smaller in scope from the main meeting agenda, to allow more time for presentation and discussion of proposals that affect many members of the transplant community and/or are controversial. During the regional meeting, each proposal on the non-discussion agenda will be voted upon, but will not be presented and discussion will not be permitted.

To request that a proposal on the non-discussion agenda be discussed, 5 member institutions (15%) need to request removal. Submit this request to Betsy Gans at or 804-782-4814 by September 8, 2016.

Webinars to learn about non-discussion agenda

Two national webinars will be held to provide members an opportunity to learn about the proposals on the non-discussion agenda and ask questions of the presenters.Since the information presented at each webinar will be identical, you onlyneed to attend one. I encourage you to attend a webinar before our regional meeting.

Please register for one of thesessions using the following link:

The webinar presentation will be posted after the first webinar on the Transplant Pro website, under the regional meeting tab: on August 24.

The webinars will be held on the following dates and times:

Tuesday, August 23, 2:00-3:30 pm EDT

Tuesday, September 20, 2:00-3:30 pm EDT

Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email with the webinar and teleconference information. The link you receive is valid for ONE entry into the webinar.

Note that the webinar is for the non-discussion agenda proposals and is not available for the in-person regional meeting.

Important: Participants are required to dial into the webinar for the audio portion using the teleconference information provided in the confirmation email.

Once you join the webinar, you will receive a PIN that you must enter to participate in the Q&A portion of the webinar. If you participate by teleconference only, please press the # key when the PIN number is requested.

If you have questions about the information provided in this memo, please contact Betsy Gans, at r Julie Heimbach ().