Extracorporeal Life Support Organization

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Welcome to ELSO

The Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) is an international non-profit consortium of health care institutions who are dedicated to the development and evaluation of novel therapies for support of failing organ systems. Crucial is the promotion of a broad multidisciplinary collaboration. The primary mission of the Organization is to maintain a registry of, at least, use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in active ELSO centers. As appropriate, registries of other novel forms of organ system support are within the purview of ELSO. Registry data is to be used to support clinical research, support regulatory agencies, and support individual ELSO centers. ELSO provides educational programs for active centers as well as for the broader medical and lay communities.

OUR VISION

Notice:

Dr. Robert Bartlett received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 48th Critical Care Congress at SCCM! Use the below link to view his talk.
Click to View Video

CMS Update

ELSO continues to partner with the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) in seeking to reverse or mitigate the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) re-coding of ECMO Diagnostic Related Groups (DRG) for Fiscal Year 2019. In this reclassification, peripherally cannulated ECMO patients were given lower reimbursing DRG assignments as compared those that were centrally cannulated. CMS has acknowledged receipt of our Comment Letter which states that site of cannulation is not associated with patient acuity nor use of hospital resources. A face to face meeting is scheduled with CMS administrators in mid-April in which we intend to further elaborate our concerns and describe the financial impact of these DRG changes on ECMO programs and hospitals. Our group also presented a proposal at the ICD-10 PCS Maintenance and Certification Meeting to further characterize cannulation approaches as either surgical or percutaneous. Additionally, we proposed a unique ICD-10 PCS code to identify patients placed on ECMO for procedural support in the absence of profound shock or respiratory failure. Public comment on these proposals is ongoing. We are currently awaiting CMS publication of the Fiscal Year 2020 Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule which will outline DRG assignments beginning October 1st, 2019. Following this publication, there is a 90-day public comment period for which we will be prepared to respond. The STS/ELSO collaborative continues to work with other professional medical societies as well as the American Hospital Association as well as industry partners. We remain grateful to our ELSO members that have dutifully entered their clinical data into the ELSO registry, serving as the main pillar in our communications with CMS.

Jonathan Haft, Chair ELSO Technology Committee

The ECMO Specialist Training Manual 4th Edition is now available!!
ECMO Specialist Training Manual 4th Edition

ELSO Center Renewal Information

All center registration is currently online through our website. For centers who joined prior to January 2018 all memberships were on calendar year and will expire December 31st. Renewal is required prior to your center membership expiration. If your center becomes inactive you will only be allowed to renew after logging into our website. You will not be able to access the data entry system, discussion board, etc. At this point there will be a late fee associated with the renewal as well.

If you have recently joined ELSO your membership will expire one year after you joined and emails will be timed appropriately.

Join the discussion and begin fostering communication and collaboration among professionals who apply advanced technologies in the treatment of refractory organ failure

Tweets by ELSO

Meetings

SEECMO 2019 05/03/2019 - 05/05/2019
Location: Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital St. Petersburg, FL
Joy Perkins 727-767-3587 jperki12@jhmi.edu
Posted Date: 07/19/2018
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30th Annual ELSO Conference 09/12/2019 - 09/15/2019
Location: Hilton Austin Hotel, Austin, Texas
Kennethia Banks-Borden or Peter Rycus 734-998-6600 kbanksborden@elso.org
Posted Date: 04/04/2018
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AATS Mechanical Support for the Heart and Lung Symposium 09/20/2019 - 09/21/2019
Location: Marriott Marquis Houston, Houston, Texas
Darlene M. Janis 978-252-2200 djanis@aats.org
Posted Date: 01/24/2019
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APELSO 2019 11/20/2019 - 11/22/2019
Location: Avani Riverside Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand

Posted Date: 12/06/2018
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31st Annual ELSO Conference 09/23/2020 - 09/26/2020
Location: Hilton Waikoloa Village - Big Island of Hawai'i
Kennethia Banks-Borden or Peter Rycus 734-995-6600 kbanksborden@elso.org
Posted Date: 04/04/2018
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ELSO Courses/Workshops

ELSO ECMO Adult Comprehensive Simulation Based Course

05/01/2019 - 05/01/2019
Location: Santiago de Chile
Andrea Fernandez andreaclc@gmail.com
Posted Date: 03/02/2019
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ELSO Cannulation Workshop

05/15/2019 - 05/17/2019
Location: Atlanta, GA
Kennethia Banks-Borden 734-998-6600 kbb@elso.org
Posted Date: 12/17/2018
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Adult ECMO for respiratory failure and septic shock

10/07/2019 - 10/10/2019
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Björn Frenckner +46 70 722 61 15 bjorn.frenckner@sll.se
Posted Date: 03/05/2019
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6th Asia-Pacific ELSO Adult ECMO Training Course 2019

10/14/2019 - 10/17/2019
Location: Hong Kong
Peter Lai lck230@ha.org.hk
Posted Date: 03/28/2019
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Extracorporeal Life Support in Adult Critical Care: An ELSO Course

11/06/2019 - 11/09/2019
Location: Emory Conference Center, Atlanta GA
Kennethia Banks-Borden 734-998-6600 kbb@elso.org
Posted Date: 11/02/2018