Meet Our Highly Experienced Team
Laura J. Aguiar, B.S., RN, CTFC
Principal and Managing Partner
Ms. Aguiar has worked in a transplant since 1993. She has previously held the positions of Transplant Financial Coordinator, Financial Administrator, Operations Manager, and Compliance Coordinator for Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston), and Mayo Clinic Arizona. She is a founder of, and served two terms as President of the Transplant Financial Coordinators Association, as well as serving on its Board of Directors as a Trustee. She has also served as Regional Representative to the UNOS/OPTN Transplant Administrators, Communications, and Finance Committees as well as the Advisory Council for the National Living Donor Assistance Center.
Ms. Aguiar’s consulting career began when Bill Vaughan asked her to join Health Systems Concepts in 2008. In 2014 Ms. Aguiar and Caroline Wolfe, RN formed Transplant Solutions, LLC. During her consulting career, she has helped to establish multiple new transplant hospitals and programs and helped others to ensure they are regulatory compliance and improve their financial and operational process’ to ensure long-term viability. Ms. Aguiar obtained her nursing degree from Gateway Community College (Arizona), has a Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Administration from Northeastern University (Boston), and is a Certified Transplant Financial Coordinator.
Helen 'Gigi' Spicer, RN
Principal
While many people working in transplant may like to say transplant is 'in their blood', for Gigi it's reality since she is actually a 2nd generation transplant nurse, her mother having worked with kidney transplant pioneer Dr. David Hume. After obtaining her BSN at the Medical College of Virginia, Gigi embarked on her own transplant career starting as the kidney transplant clinical manager at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center before moving on to Henrico Doctor's Hospital to start their first transplant program in 1990. Over the course of her career, she has also served on numerous transplant advisory boards and councils including the OPTN/UNOS, The American Society for Transplantation, LifeNet, The American Foundation for Donation and Transplantation (where she was the first non-physician President 2017 - 2019), the National Kidney Registry, and The Alliance. With her passion for all things transplant quality, it was only natural that she would serve as Founding Faculty for the annual Transplant Quality Institute, now in its 11th year. Her work as the Chair and Founding Faculty for AFDT's Annual Living Donor Essentials Course, now in its 18th year, resulted in her being asked to participate on the national kidney paired donation consensus conferences in 2012 and 2014. Due to her expertise in transplant quality, operations, and regulatory issues she has been an invited speaker for organizations such as The Alliance, CareDx, and the Transplant Financial Coordinators Association, to name a few.
Having 'failed retirement' now for at least the 3rd time, she is currently working with The Tulane Transplant Institute, in its new home at East Jefferson General Hospital, to start their first heart and lung transplant programs, services which are much needed in Louisiana.
William P. Vaughan
Principal
Bill Vaughan is a nationally recognized expert within the transplant community in the areas of transplant finance, operations, compliance, and especially the Medicare Cost Report for both transplant hospitals and tissue typing labs.
Bill started ‘playing’ with Medicare, as he likes to say, when he was employed by the Aetna Life Insurance Company, a Medicare Fiscal Intermediary in Hartford, Connecticut, starting in 1976. During his 11 years with them, he served as an administrator of a Medicare Part A field office and the Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease Reimbursement Program with a focus on the tissue-typing laboratories and independent organ procurement agencies.
Also, Bill was Vice President of Reimbursement at LifeLink Foundation, Inc., Tampa, from 1985 to 1990. After that, Bill led Health Systems Concepts as Founder and Principal from 1986 - 2012 and Chief Operating Officer of Guidry and East before joining Transplant Solutions, LLC, in 2015.
Our Team Includes
Yolanda T. Becker
M.D., FACS, FAST
Abdominal Transplant Surgery, Regulatory Compliance, Clinical Operations
Dicken S.C. Ko
BSc., MD, FRCSC, FACS
Abdominal Transplant Surgery and Transplant Urology
Koren Axelrod
Koren (Axelrod) Way, CPHQ Transplant Quality and Outcomes
Francisco A. Arabia,
MD MBA
Heart Transplant Surgery,
Total Artificial Heart, and Mechanical Assist Device
Stephanie A. Moore
MD, FACC, FACP
Transplant Cardiology, Advanced Heart Failure, Transplant Quality
Kimberly Ann Parks
D.O., F.A.C.C.
Transplant Cardiology & Advanced Heart Failure
Martha Pavlakis
MD
Transplant Nephrology
Personalized Assistance
During the course of their combined professional and consulting careers, the staff at Transplant Solutions, LLC have worked with more than 150 transplant hospitals, tissue typing labs, and OPOs in the country, assisting with new program development, financial and clinical operations reviews, Medicare Cost Report preparation, new staff orientation, physician/surgeon executive coaching, clinical mentoring, and Systems Improvement Agreement (SIA) fulfillment. This gives them a perspective nearly unmatched in the transplant community today.
Transplant Solutions, LLC was started to better meet the needs of those clients who want more personal attention and support than other consulting firms are able to provide. And, since our overhead is low, we can pass those savings on to our clients.
Transplant Solutions, LLC, has a multi-disciplinary team of experienced transplant professionals ready to meet your needs.
How can we help you?