Patients with complex liver, lung, heart and kidney disease require well-coordinated, ongoing medical care, before, during and after transplant. To help these patients receive as much care as possible closer to their homes, Stanford Hospital & Clinics has opened a number of transplant outreach clinics throughout Northern California and Nevada. This network of satellite clinics is staffed by Stanford specialists who work closely with local referring physicians to extend Stanford's world-renowned transplant programs and comprehensive disease management to patients outside the immediate service area.

"The outreach clinics are an extension of our services," says Aijaz Ahmed, MD, a Stanford transplant hepatologist who travels to the central coast five days a month to see patients. He describes his role as caring for this increasingly ill population, bridging their care until a donor liver becomes available, and managing their health with the ongoing help of local specialists. "Our goal is to keep patients at home in their own communities as long as possible," says Ahmed. "We only bring patients to Stanford for highly specialized procedures or for surgery."