ISMETT

ISMETT, in Italian, Istituto Mediterraneo per i Trapianti e Terapie ad Alta Specializzazione translated as the Mediterranean Institute for Transplantation and Advanced Specialized Therapies, is a center for organ transplantation located in Palermo, Italy. ISMETT was founded in 1997 as a partnership between the Region of Sicily, the Civico and Cervello hospitals in Palermo, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

ISMETT primarily specializes in performing all types of organ transplantations, using both deceased and living donor techniques. ISMETT has 70 beds (14 ICU, 21 in semi-intensive, and 35 inpatient), 7 outpatient beds, 4 operating rooms, a hospital pharmacy and laboratory analysis, infectious diseases and pathology in a facility that covers an area of 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m²).

History

The idea of creation of the Institute stemmed from a group of hepatologists at a hospital in Palermo that proposed to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) the idea of a multi-organ transplant center to be realized in Sicily. Its creation was also prompted by a 1995 law passed in the United State that capped the total number of foreign patients that can be placed on a waiting list for transplants at 5%. For this reason, transplant leaders in Pittsburgh, long a leading and pioneering center of organ transplantation, began looking toward opportunities in Europe and participated actively in the creation of a transplant center in Palermo. On May 23, 1996, the idea was presented to the Ministry of Health, who welcomed the project.