Navigating Transplant Patient Care During COVID-19

Dr. Adam Bingaman, Director of Abdominal Organ Transplantation at Methodist Hospital/Specialty and Transplant in San Antonio, TX discusses tips for transplant patients and their caregivers as they navigate the “new normal” environment.  He is joined by Dr. Peter Maag, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for CareDx, the company behind RemoTraC, a remote home-based monitoring system for transplant patients.

Adam Bingaman, MD, PhD, is the Director of Abdominal Organ Transplantation at Methodist Hospital/Specialty and Transplant in San Antonio. He is a Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Surgeon.

Dr. Bingaman heads up some of the best-known and most-preferred programs, not only in San Antonio and South Texas but also nationally in the case of the Kidney Live Donor Program. The Kidney Paired Exchange Program, Blood Type Incompatible Program, and the Sensitized Patient Program are manifestations of Dr. Bingaman’s passion for taking on challenges as they relate to difficult-to-transplant patients.

Both Dr. Bingaman and the groundbreaking Kidney Live Donor Transplant Program in San Antonio have garnered national and international acclaim. He travels extensively to share his expertise and has lectured and performed grand rounds at some of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions, including Cambridge University, Yale University, and Mayo Clinic. He has spoken on live donor kidney transplantation and histocompatibility to transplant organizations in Spain, Poland, Belgium, Canada, Latin America, and South Korea.

Dr. Bingaman graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in biochemistry and received his medical degree cum laude from Boston University School of Medicine. He completed his general surgery residency at Emory University Affiliated Hospitals Residency Program and earned a doctorate in immunology from Emory University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Division of Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis. His thesis focused on how the immune system accepts or rejects transplanted tissues. Dr. Bingaman completed his fellowship training in kidney and pancreas transplantation surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Prior to joining Texas Transplant Institute, Dr. Bingaman was an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio. Dr. Bingaman holds memberships in American College of Surgeons, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, American Society of Transplant Physicians and Alpha Omega Alpha Medical National Honor Society. He has published extensively in the field of transplantation immunology.

Dr. Maag has over 20 years of executive management experience in the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industry. Prior to joining CareDx, Peter was President of Novartis Diagnostics. He headed the expansion of the unit with worldwide growth in its blood screening business and established new ventures in molecular diagnostics. Peter also led one of Novartis’ key affiliates as Country President, Germany, and lived in a dynamically-growing and emerging market as Country President, Korea. At Novartis headquarters in Switzerland, he served as the Head of Strategy for Novartis Pharmaceuticals and helped launch the Infectious Diseases franchise. Prior to joining Novartis, Peter worked at McKinsey & Company in New Jersey and Germany, focusing on pharmaceuticals and globalization strategies. Besides supporting various healthcare and tech companies in their growth efforts, he holds a supervisory board position at Phoenix Pharma SE and serves on the board of the Personalized Medicine Coalition in Washington, DC. Peter studied pharmaceutical sciences in Heidelberg and London and received his PhD from the University of Berlin, Germany.