Lower Merion Doc Takes New Role At Organ Transplant Group

A Lower Merion doctor is taking on a new role with a national organ transplant group. David J. Reich, M.D., FACS, will serve as the treasurer of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN/UNOS) Board of Directors.

Reich, who lives in Lower Merino with his wife and three kids, will serve a two-year term beginning in July 2017.

Reich is professor and chief of the Division of Multiorgan Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Drexel University College of Medicine and Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College of Columbia University in New York and his medical degree from McGill University School of Medicine in Montreal.

He then completed his American Society of Transplant Surgeons approved multi-organ transplant surgery fellowship at The Mount Sinai Hospital Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute in New York City.

Reich is certified by the American Board of Surgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and has practiced transplant and hepatobiliary surgery in Philadelphia for the past 21 years.

As treasurer, Reich will oversee budgetary responsibilities for the organization that manages the nation’s organ transplant network, will chair the Finance Committee of the OPTN (the national network) – as well as that of UNOS (the non-profit organization that serves as the OPTN under federal contract) – and will serve as one of the six officers on the OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors.

Reich currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors and additionally chairs the UNOS Information Technology Advisory Committee.

He previously served terms on the OPTN/UNOS Membership and Professional Standards Committee and Liver and Intestinal Organ Transplantation Committee.

Reich also chairs the task force on MACRA, Value-Based Practice and Pay Reform of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS); has chaired the ASTS Legislative Committee and the Standards and Quality Committee and served on the Fellowship Training and Workforce Committees; has chaired the Liver Transplant and Surgery Committee of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and served on its Steering, Education Oversight and Scientific Program Committees; and has served on the Medical Advisory Board of Gift of Life Donor Program.

"Dr. Reich has been a pioneer of Donation after Cardiac Death and other strategies to expand the organ donor pool," a press release said. "He is investigating innovative technologies for artificial liver support and organ preservation, including cellular therapy to augment resuscitative effects of machine perfusion of donor organs. Other career long areas of his focus have included healthcare quality improvement, transplant reimbursement, and medical education and training. He has authored over 100 publications and presented internationally."

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