Statutes v1.0 - 7 Dec 2020

Goals & Accomplishments

  • ERAS: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery is a treatment program based on the best available medical science, with several studies showing that following ERAS pathways versus traditional care, have significant benefits to patient recovery.
  • ERAS4OLT.org: ERAS for Liver Transplantation Consensus Conference, January/February 2022.

Terminology/Definitions & Responsibilities

  • Chairs and Chief Investigators: Responsible for planning and scheduling all conference committee meetings including developing and overseeing all research activities to maximize efficient use of resources including people, time, and money. They have chosen preliminary topics for discussion at the consensus conference. They may allocate members of the Scientific and Vanguard Committee, as well as other experts, to address each topic with the generation of a manuscript as well as presentation at the conference. The Chairs and the Chief Investigators of ERAS4OLT.org may allocate Committee Members to participate in the different aspects of this project, such as conducting systematic reviews, participating in the Expert Working Groups, as well deciding to add or remove Committee Members at any point up to 30 days prior to the Consensus Conference.
  • ILTS: International Liver Transplant Society
  • Scientific Committee: This Committee is comprised of, among others, previous ILTS presidents, a diverse group of leaders in the field of liver transplantation. In addition to these, selected individuals who had made a substantial scientific contributions to the ILTS were also invited. They will oversee the scientific part of the projects and give strategic direction, supporting the members of the Vanguard Committee. Scientific Committee Members also participate as experts in each one of the Expert Working Groups (see below). The Scientific Committee Members have the right to veto specific topics or recommend additional topics to be covered at the Consensus Conference.
  • ILTS Vanguard Committee: This is a highly selected group of young, enthusiastic, and motivated clinicians and scientists that are assigned to in each one of the Expert Working Groups (see below).
  • Organizing Committee: This is an additional group of hard working and efficient individuals that are assigned to either support some of the Expert Working Groups (see below) and / or help with the organizational part of the conference, including safeguarding and applying regulations, arranging regular committee meetings, taking minutes, recording decisions and tasks clearly, as well as providing online support to the remaining committee members.
  • Junior Research Committee: This is comprised by young, energetic and motivated junior scientists and medical students. Selection is based on interviews by the Chairs and Chief Investigators. They will be, among others responsible for screening of records derived from systematic reviews.
  • Experts / Panel Group Members / Panel: This is a group of experts in the field of liver transplantation, including surgeons, anesthetists,  hepatologists and allied health professions. Their involvement includes a) acting as a Member of the Experts Working Group assigned to each question/topic, b) participating in the preparation of a short paper in an evidence-based manner to be included in the electronic Conference Proceedings and published in a special issue of a scientific journal, and c) actively participating in the Conference.
  • Writing Committee: This will be a group or ERAS4OLT.org members allocated by and including the Chairs and Chief Investigators who will draft the main manuscript for the final recommendations, coauthored by all ERAS4OLT.org members in the form of group authorship.
  • Topics / Questions / Program: This is the list of questions, topics and domains of ERAS4OLT.org, derived from the Chairs and Chief Investigators of ERAS4OLT.org to be addressed by the experts and recommended by the jury via the writing committee.
  • Jury: This is a group of scientists who are not experts in the field of liver transplantation including patient representatives, ethicists, and epidemiologists. This “unbiased” group will report upon the recommendations of ERAS for Liver Transplantation derived from the expert statements and the audience interactions during the Consensus Conference.
  • Public / Audience / Participants: These will form the delegates of the meeting with the opportunity for open discussions of each topic as well as voting upon expert panel statements during the Consensus Conference.

Participation at the Conference

  1. Participation in the scientific aspects of this project is via invitation only, however members of the public will be able to participate in the ERAS4OLT.org Consensus Conference to take place in  January / February 2020 to represent the audience.
  2. All participants are encouraged to be ILTS members.
  3. The audience at the conference will be able to vote at the end of each presentation to capture the agreement between the public and the expert statements, including the level as well as the grade of recommendations.
  4. The Jury will observe the interaction among the experts and the audience, including the discussions and voting, and will provide the final recommendations regarding ERAS for Liver Transplantation to the Writing Committee.
  5. The Jury may change the grading of the recommendations (upgrade or downgrade) according to their discretion.
  6. The Writing Committee will report the final recommendations, including the level of evidence and grading of the recommendations according to the “GRADE” system, as suggested by the Jury.
  7. All participants have the right to terminate their scientific collaboration with ERAS4OLT.org after providing the reason and feedback to the Chairs and the Chief Investigators of ERAS4OLT.org
  8. Expert group members allocated to address the different topics will need to be expert in that specific field (i.e. question/topic) by having a special interest, have audited their practice or published in that particular topic. All members of the Scientific, Vanguard, or Organizing Committees are eligible to participate as experts panel members.

Authorship

  • The Writing Committee will be the authors of the final recommendations of ERAS4OLT.org together with additional members of the jury (TBA).
  • The authors for each of the expert panel group manuscripts / statements will be the allocated Vanguard Committee Member as first, the Scientific Committee Member as last (senior) and the remaining members of the panel group in between. If the expert panel group have unanimous different order of the authors list, the Chairs and Chief Investigators of ERAS4OLT.org are willing to accept that.
  • The first shared authors for the final recommendations manuscript will be Prof Joerg-Mathias Pollok, Prof Marina Berenguer and Prof Claus Niemann with shared senior / corresponding authors (last), Dr Dimitri Raptis and Dr Michael Spiro. Additional co-authors will be selected according to their contribution to the final recommendations manuscript based on their level of contribution and announced at a later date.

Publication Policy

  • Each systematic review conducted to address each topic of the ERAS4OLT.org consensus conference will be registered on the PROSPERO registry and potentially published as a protocol in a peer reviewed journal.
  • Each of the 20 statements from the Expert Panel Members addressing the different topics of ERAS4OLT.org will be separately published in a special issue of a scientific journal, if accepted, and/or as a basis for a textbook.
  • The final recommendations of ERAS4OLT.org derived from the Writing Committee and Jury will be published first before the Expert Panel manuscripts, in a high impact factor journal, if accepted.

Non-Performance & Conflict Resolution

  • In the event of inadequate performance, the ERAS4OLT.org member involved will be notified by e mail of our concerns. Following this a 30-day review will take place after which the member can be removed from the study and the authorship unless sufficient action has been taken to remedy the situation.
  • Should conflict or issues surrounding adequate performance occur then the decision of the Chairs and Chief Investigators will be final.  No right of appeal or compensation will be offered.
  • Should conflict occur between the Chairs and Chief Investigators then a democratic vote will take place as to the best course of action by the remaining members.

On Behalf of

Chairs:
Dr. Mike Spiro and Mr. Dimitri Raptis 

Chief Investigators:
Prof. Claus Niemann, Prof. Joerg Pollok and Prof. Marina Berenguer