CCEB Seminar-Therese Bittermann, MD, MSCE

"Immunosuppression Practices after Liver Transplantation are Highly Variable and Predict Outcomes"Therese Bittermann, MD, MSCE Instructor, Medicine/GastroenterologyPerelman School of Medicine   Dr. Bittermann is Instructor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Faculty Fellow in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the impact of center-level variability and physician decision-making in the care of patients before and after liver transplantation. She has contributed to the growing scientific evidence base that seeks to improve the U.S. organ allocation system and reduce inequities in patient access to liver transplantation. She has conducted studies that have identified areas of inefficiency in current organ allocation policies, recognized instances of insufficient adherence to policy guidelines, and evaluated the significance of healthcare resource utilization pre- and post-transplant nationally. Her present work examines center-level variability in immunosuppression management after liver transplantation and the impact of medication regimen choice on patient survival, hospitalization risk and other important posttransplant outcomes.