Alli F EQUIP FCAlli F EQUIP CW

Directory Menu

Partner Information

Get Involved

Contact Us

Sarah Casalinova

Assistant Research Practice Manager
Duke University Medical Center
Sarah Casalinova

Brief Bio

Sarah is the Assistant Research Practice Manager for cardiothoracic surgery and VAD research at Duke which includes management of heart and lung transplant clinical trials. She led the TransMedics OCS Heart clinical trials at Duke over the last several years and operationalized the use of this device and others at Duke. Sarah now partners with the Duke Transplant Center to manage transplant device use at Duke beyond the clinical trial stage.

Primary Patient Group Both

Primary Areas of Expertise Procurement

Primary Organs of Expertise Thoracic Organs (Heart and Lung)

Alliance Presentations

Pediatric Heart 1480 AS336838892

Pediatric Partial Heart Transplants: An Innovative Approach to Decrease Waitlist Mortality

Wednesday, December 07, 2022, at 2:00pm

Donation and transplantation professionals are relentlessly exploring innovative ways to decrease waitlist mortality and increase organ utilization within the adult and pediatric population. Most recently, a team at Duke Health performed the first world’s first pediatric partial heart transplant that involved the fusing of donated arteries and valves to a patient’s existing heart. Not only does this remarkable procedure have the potential to extend the life expectancy of pediatric patients who otherwise would be waiting for a life-saving heart transplant, but it allows surgeons to make use of hearts that would otherwise go untransplanted. Join us to hear from Dr. Joseph Turek, Duke’s Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, and his colleagues who assisted in making this surgery a success to learn more about the overall process from procurement to transplant.

Organ Perfusion Conversation Series

The Changing Landscape and Economics of Perfusion Technology

Tuesday, June 28, 2022, at 2:00pm

The Alliance Conversation Series brings you cost-free, fast-paced collaborative opportunities that highlight successful donation and transplantation practices across the country. Through shared insight, multidisciplinary experts identify solutions to critical challenges affecting the community of practice and actively share them for open discussion and broader knowledge of effective practices.

The Alliance is not an advocacy organization and always intends to maintain an objective and unbiased perspective.

Sessions are designed to be approximately 30-45 minutes in length and encourage real-time feedback and participation from viewers.

Overview: Recent advancement in organ perfusion technology has led to the increasing transplantation of marginal donor organs and allowed for distant procurement of allografts beyond the time limitation of cold storage. This rapidly advancing machine perfusion technology promises improved preservation, better assessment, and even reconditioning of organs before transplant. However, many questions remain to be resolved regarding implementing this technology.

Our speakers will discuss how OPOs, and Transplant Centers fit into the current landscape, and the opportunities both estates face, including the wide availability of machine perfusion devices, costs, reimbursement, staff training, and competencies.

Lifelong Networks

Our partners are the heart and soul of our organization. For more than 15 years, they have played a vital role providing quality education and programs to advance a shared mission.

Help Us Build Our Network