DaVita® Medical Insights

Podcast: The Current State of Kidney Transplantation

Kidney transplantation is a complex topic and there are many challenges, opportunities and recent developments affecting the transplant community. Listen to this podcast, in which Hunter Barnett interviews Yolanda Becker, MD, on initiatives run by the United Network for Organ Sharing, the current kidney supply shortage, the lack of post-transplant coverage in the PATIENTS Act and how dialysis providers can be a bigger voice in the transplant conversation.

Yolanda T. Becker, MD

Yolanda T. Becker, MD

Yolanda T. Becker, MD, is a professor of surgery and director of kidney and pancreas transplantation at University of Chicago Medicine. She is also vice president of the OPTN/UNOS board of directors and of the UNOS corporate affairs committee and serves as a member of the nominating committee and the board governance subcommittee. She has chaired the policy oversight committee and has served on the membership and professional standards committee (MPSC) and its performance analysis and improvement subcommittee. In addition, Dr. Becker has been a member of MPSC’s performance and certification, and certification maintenance workgroups, co-chairing the latter. Dr. Becker has served as an elected member of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) board of directors, co-chairing its winter symposium, chairing its education committee and serving on the minority affairs committee. She has served on the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) scientific studies committee and on the AST/ASTS American Transplant Congress program planning committee. She also has served on the board of directors of the National Kidney Registry. Dr. Becker earned her medical degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. She received additional leadership training by completing the Executive Leaders in Academic Medicine program at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.