Dr. Reese uses normative and empirical ethics analyses to make transplantation more fair and more efficient. His work has often addressed barriers to equity in the care of patients with kidney disease, including serious problems with lack of transparency with the use of race-based measurement of kidney disease, often without the patient’s knowledge or assent. This work, with Dr. Eneanya and published in JAMA, contributed to a major overhaul in the approach to estimating glomerular filtration rate by the leading nephrology societies. In clinical practice, Dr. Reese has called out the mis-use of race in eligibility for kidney transplantation. Advocacy by his group and many others led to national policy that overhauled how transplant centers across the US measure kidney function when deciding who can join the waiting list.

Recently, as multiple experiments with xenotransplantation are conducted, Dr. Reese has proposed criteria for the ethical selection and consent of patients who could participate in trials of transplanting xeno-kidneys. With colleagues, he also charted a pathway for regulatory agencies, transplant centers and biotechnology companies to engineer equity into the process of bringing xenotransplant into clinical care.

He has incorporated this normative scientific work with policy development on multiple committees of the United Network for Organ Sharing, which regulates organ allocation and professional standards for transplantation in the US. Dr. Reese served as Chair of the Ethics Committee, where he collaborated with Dr. Bob Veatch, among many others.