Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Program

Our ECMO program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center was one of the first centers in the world to achieve the Platinum Level Center of Excellence Award, signifying that our ECMO program meets the highest standards of care. In 2021, our ECMO program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, a first-time applicant for ELSO designation, proudly achieved the Gold Level Center of Excellence Award. In order to be recognized for these awards by ELSO, our ECMO programs had to meet rigorous requirements for program volumes, staffing structures, training and quality improvement initiatives, and patient support programs.

Innovation in ECMO

Because the ECMO programs of Columbia and Weill Cornell Medicine lead innovative clinical initiatives and research endeavors, NewYork-Presbyterian provides a cutting-edge approach to ECMO and patient management, thereby bringing our patients unprecedented access to the most advanced treatments. This advanced expertise is apparent by other institutions routinely transferring patients to NewYork-Presbyterian for ECMO support.

We have developed streamlined algorithms to deliver immediate and standardized ECMO care to patients whether they are in the ambulance or aircraft (including ECMO transport), emergency department (ED), or the intensive care unit (ICU), which means that patients receive timely, safe, and effective life-saving heart or lung care. We have led the field in developing and utilizing novel ECMO configurations to allow patients to maintain physical activity while awaiting heart or lung transplantation. Patients also have access to novel clinical trials and medications, not readily available elsewhere. NewYork-Presbyterian frequently holds education and training sessions and we are responsible for training a large number of the ECMO specialists in the United States.