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THE BOB MACKAY MEMORIAL ENDOWMENT FUND 
The Bob MacKay Memorial Endowment Fund supports the research and educational activities of the Program. The Fund has provided needed funds in support of Data Management personnel to gather and report outcomes of hematopeoetic ste cell transplants at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. With this information, the Program has been successful in competing for an R-21 Grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study outcomes of patients following autologous transplantation. In addition, The Transplant Program was a lead institution for a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) funded study of the role of T-Cell depletion for the prevention of Graft Versus Host Disease in patients undergoing allogeneic unrelated bone marrow transplants. Most recently, based on our previous activities, supported in part by this Fund, our Program has been invited to participate in an NCI/NHLBI funded Transplant Trials Group study of the role of prophylaxis in the prevention of fungal infections in patients undergoing allogeneic transplantation. Over the past 13 years that the Fund has been in place, the Transplant Program has been a lead participant in other NCI sponsored activities through the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) Cooperative Group for clinical trials research. The goals of CALGB, through its clinical trials programs, are to improve the treatments of patients with cancer, to cure patients when possible, to prevent cancer occurrence, and to further the understanding of the biology of cancer. The Fund has also been an integral component of our ability to compete for funds from the pharmaceutical industry and to participate in the multi-center clinical trials sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. Through this effort, improved means of treating and supporting the transplant patient have been developed that have become the new standards for patient management. With the support of the Fund, the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center was the first Transplant Program in North Carolina to become accredited by the Foundation for Accreditation of Hematopoietic Cell Therapy (FACHT) Programs. Accreditation by FACHT is now recognized as the gold standard for approval of transplant programs in North America. As a result of all the activities supported by the Fund, the Faculty and Fellows involved in Transplantation have been very productive. During the past 13 years, there have been over 40 articles and book chapters published, over 75 abstracts published, and over 65 presentations at meetings and educational symposia. Finally, the Fund supports the travel of key individuals to attend education conferences in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. By attending these conferences, additional Astate of the art@ information can be acquired and then applied to the day to day activities at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center Transplant Program. David D. Hurd, M.D. |
