About

Peter P. Reese, MD, PhD, is an adjunct professor of medicine specializing in renal-electrolyte and hypertension at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. He is a transplant nephrologist and epidemiologist who cares for patients at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. His research focuses on developing effective strategies to increase access to kidney transplantation, improving the process of selecting and caring for live kidney donors, and determining the outcomes of health policies on vulnerable populations with renal disease, including the elderly. Additionally, he tests strategies to enhance health behaviors such as medication adherence and directs Penn’s Center for Quality, Analytics and Research in Transplantation (PQART). Reese also chairs the Ethics Committee for the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), overseeing organ allocation and transplant regulation in the United States. His contributions to transplant research have been recognized with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). His work encompasses ethical considerations in organ donation, outcomes among older donors, and innovative approaches to organ transplantation and health policy.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Nursing
• Physical therapy
• Intensive care medicine
• Environmental health
• Economics
• Pathology
• Family medicine
• Physical medicine and rehabilitation
• Demography
• Surgery
• Psychiatry

Selected publications

• A Prediction Model for Risk of Death in Kidney Transplant Recipients

  JAMA Network Open · 2026-04-23

  articleOpen access

  Importance: Accurate prediction of patient mortality after kidney transplant is an unmet need. Objective: To develop and validate an integrative prediction model that predicts short- and long-term patient mortality for kidney recipients. Design, Setting, and Participants: This international cohort study included patients who underwent transplants between 2004 and 2023 from 14 academic medical centers from Europe and the US. The derivation cohort consisted of 1566 consecutive adult kidney recipients in a deeply phenotyped cohort prospectively recruited in 1 French center between 2004 and 2014. External validation cohorts consisted of 10 951 kidney recipients from 7 centers in France, 3 centers in Europe, and 3 centers in North America who underwent kidney transplants between 2006 and 2023. Data were analyzed from January 2023 to June 2025. Main Outcome and Measures: All-cause mortality was assessed, and 121 candidate prognostic factors, comprising demographics and clinical, biological, imaging, and immunological parameters, were collected. Results: Among 12 517 kidney transplant recipients, including 1566 in the derivation cohort (mean [SD] age, 50.05 [14.31] years; 942 male [60.15%]) and 10 951 in validation cohorts (mean [SD] age, 53.32 [13.97] years; 6766 male [61.78%]), 2486 patients (19.9%) died after a median (IQR) follow-up of 5.08 (2.97-7.00) years. Fourteen prognostic factors (including clinical, biological, and imaging risk factors) were independently associated with patient death (eg, patient age: hazard ratio per 1-year increase in age, 1.07 [95% CI, 1.06-1.08]; P < .001) and were combined into a risk prediction model (mBox). The model exhibited accurate calibration and discrimination in the derivation cohort, with C statistics of 0.82 (95% CI, 0.77-0.87) and 0.80 (95% CI, 0.78-0.82) at 1 and 10 years, respectively, after the transplant. Abbreviated models were developed and validated to ensure model generalizability. Performance of abbreviated models was confirmed in external validation cohorts from France (C statistic, 0.76 [95% CI, 0.73-0.78]), Europe (C statistic, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.72-0.76]), the US (C statistic, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.70-0.78]), the Greater Paris University Hospital database (C statistic, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.77-0.81]), and the University of California at San Francisco database (C statistic, 0.70 [95% CI, 0.65-0.74]). The model was also validated in a series of subpopulations (eg, women vs men: C statistic, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.77-0.84] vs 0.79 [95% CI, 0.77-0.82]) and clinical scenarios (eg, before COVID-19 era: C statistic, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.77-0.81]) with good and stable performance. Conclusions and Relevance: In this study, an accurate prediction model for mortality among kidney recipients, computable at the time of transplant, was developed and externally validated. Results suggest that this model may help stratify patient risk of death, allowing for improved medical decisions.

  PublisherDOI

• Geographic Accessibility of Deceased Organ Donor Care Units

  JAMA Network Open · 2026-03-13

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Importance: Transfers of deceased organ donors from acute care hospitals to specialized donor care units (DCUs) offer operational and outcome advantages; however, current access to DCUs is limited and geographically uneven. Expanding access to DCUs may improve donation system efficiency. Objective: To evaluate the geographic distribution of operating DCUs relative to acute care hospitals and explore how to most efficiently operationalize recommendations that a DCU operate in every donation region. Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective cohort study analyzed deceased organ donor and hospital data captured in the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and American Hospital Association survey databases from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2023. Acute-care hospitals and DCUs operating in the continental US and adult (aged ≥18 years) organ donors with brain death managed in acute care hospitals located in 2203 zip codes were included. The data analysis was performed between October 1, 2024, and December 1, 2025. Exposures: Geographic location of organ donor hospitals. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome was the optimal number of DCUs required to enable transportation of all cohort donors from acute care hospitals to DCUs via ambulance (within a 180-minute drive). The number of additional DCUs needed to operationalize recommendations of a DCU in every donation region was quantified with and without consideration for donation service area boundaries using location-allocation modeling. Results: Between 2018 and 2023, 53 093 deceased donors met the inclusion criteria (mean [SD] age, 44.3 years [15.0]; 60.0% male). Among the cohort, 61.9% of donors were managed in acute care hospitals within driving distance of 34 operating DCUs. In the current system with distinct donation service area boundaries, an additional 38 DCUs were estimated to provide plausible access to 92.7% of donors. If donation service area boundaries were ignored, 22 new DCUs were estimated to provide a referral facility for a larger proportion of donors (96.5%). Conclusions and Relevance: This cohort study found that despite their reported advantages and consensus endorsement, heterogeneous adoption of DCUs has left a substantial proportion of deceased donors after brain death more than a 180-minute drive from a DCU. Given inefficiencies introduced by donation service area boundaries, opening additional DCUs in acute care hospitals and donor transport across these existing boundaries may be 2 potential approaches to improve system efficiency and donation outcomes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Prevention of urinary stones with hydration: a randomised clinical trial of an adherence intervention

  The Lancet · 2026-03-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Extracorporeal liver cross-circulation using transgenic xenogeneic pig livers with brain-dead human decedents

  Nature Medicine · 2026-02-09 · 6 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• A Cross-Sectional Social Network Analysis of Decision-Making About Recruiting a Living Donor for Kidney Transplantation

  Kidney Medicine · 2025-08-21

  articleOpen access

  Rationale & Objective: Most living kidney donors are members of the recipient's social network. Our study aims to characterize patient and social network factors associated with recruiting a living kidney donor. Study Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting & Participants: A total of 106 patients receiving hemodialysis (mean age 60 ± 13 years, 45% female, 75% Black) identified 508 network members (106 who offered to donate and 38 who received a donation request). Predictors: Demographic and network factors (eg instrumental support, strength of relationships between the patients and members). Outcomes: Whether the member offered to donate and whether the member's offer was accepted. Patients' qualitative reasoning regarding decision-making for recruiting a living kidney donor. Analytic Approach: We performed a mixed-methods egocentric network analysis using multilevel logistic regression models as well as qualitative analysis of open-ended survey questions. Results: = 0.02) were more likely to be evaluated at a transplant center. Concern and guilt for the member was the most common reason that patients declined offers (41%) or did not make a living donor request (28%), while members' insistence on donating was a common reason for accepting an offer. Limitations: Small sample of only patients receiving hemodialysis. Conclusions: For many patients, the barrier to living kidney donation was not a lack of potential donors within their network but reticence to recruit a donor due to concern and guilt for the donor. Future living donor kidney transplantation interventions should engage patients and their networks to facilitate communication, address patient-specific concerns and emphasize donor retention.

  PublisherDOI

• Scientific advances in the assessment, modification, and generation of transplantable organs for patients with end-stage organ diseases

  The Lancet · 2025-07-01 · 12 citations

  review
  PublisherDOI

• Donor-Derived Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Among Pediatric Kidney Transplant Recipients

  JAMA · 2025-09-17 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  This study uses US national data to examine Epstein-Barr virus–seronegative donor kidney use among Epstein-Barr virus–seronegative children.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Association of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Access to Deceased Donor Kidney Transplantation Among US Transplant Candidates

  American Journal of Transplantation · 2025-08-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Improving the Prediction of Deceased Donor Allograft Function with Donor Urinary Biomarkers

  American Journal of Transplantation · 2025-08-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Outcomes of Hepatitis B Viremic Donor Kidney Transplants in Seronegative Recipients: An Analysis of National Registry Data

  American Journal of Transplantation · 2025-08-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01DK09038801A1

  NIH · $400k · 2014

• Comparative effectiveness of process and outcomes incentives for lipid management

  NIH · $3.9M · 2014–2020

• NIH Grant K23DK078688

  NIH · $658k · 2012

• NIH Grant F32DK076442

  NIH · $82k · 2007

• Harnessing Behavior to Decrease Urinary Stone Disease Morbidity Research Project

  NIH · $5.3M · 2016–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Dorry L. Segev

  New York University

  146 shared

• Amit X. Garg

  Lawson Health Research Institute

  129 shared

• Greg Knoll

  University of Ottawa

  129 shared

• Krista L. Lentine

  Saint Louis University Hospital

  128 shared

• Ngan N. Lam

  University of Florida Health

  125 shared

• Leroy Storsley

  University of Manitoba

  124 shared

• Christine Dipchand

  Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre

  124 shared

• Eric McArthur

  Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences

  124 shared

Labs

• Reese LabPI

Awards & honors

• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers…
• T. Franklin Williams Award in Geriatric Research