Transplants are identified as nonelective surgeries, and transplant patients have faced urgent medical needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Our practice, like many others across the country, did slow down in March and April of this year," says Dr. Patrick Dean, a Mayo Clinic transplant surgeon. "Patients and providers were concerned ― appropriately so ― about what would happen with this pandemic and whether it would be safe to have a transplant or for that matter any health care that wasn't absolutely emergent."

In this "Mayo Clinic Q&A" podcast, Dr. Dean talks about taking care of transplant patients; overcoming surgery challenges during the pandemic; the increased risks transplant patients have of developing SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, because of compromised immune systems; and the important need for COVID-19 testing.