Welcome!
On behalf of the Board of Trustees for the International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation (ICAOT), we are pleased to launch this web site with a focus on the history, development, and clinical applications in the fields of artificial organ technologies and transplantation. This site is dedicated to those who have contributed to these fields and the information is meant to be built on and expanded. In these initial pages we focused on providing the history of the Center and note some early pioneers honored with the Cleveland Award. We outline the rich history of developments and applications in the field, certainly an area to be expanded on. We provide a summary of our physical museum in Cleveland and later in Houston. Understanding that there is no one physical location that can totally recreate the history of these fields, we introduce the first participants of our virtual museum collection: the Baxter Dialysis Collection, the Inzai Medical Museum, the Kolff Museum, and the Thomas Jefferson University Collection. We believe that there are many institutions, companies, and individuals who can contribute to this virtual collection and who have important stories and recollections that we look forward to hearing related to this incredible part of medicine’s history. We also know that our Milestones are incomplete and appreciate any additions you may make. We understand that the fields we highlight are ever changing, and future developments and clinical successes will evolve. We believe that an understanding of this history can pave the ways for bringing forth better health care solutions for organ failure patients. Our wish is that no one will ever require an artificial organ or need a transplant, but if needed these developments may provide improved solutions to treat such problems either by replacement, recovery, or regeneration. Much credit should be given to those pioneers from before, today, and in the future to make such dreams possible.
I give particular thanks to Hersh PR and Marketing, LLC and to our Advisors and those with whom we have consulted for their efforts in making this launch possible.
Paul S. Malchesky, D.Eng.
President, ICAOT