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Innovations in Review 2024

Transplant

The transplant programs at Columbia and Weill Cornell Medicine are among the longest established and most experienced in the country. Our transplant experts have consistently pushed the boundaries to advance care and create more opportunities for lifesaving transplants. Over the last year, teams across the system have pioneered new techniques to make surgical procedures safer and more effective, as well as conducted research on postoperative transplant outcomes to gain a better understanding of the optimal way to approach transplantation.

Transplant
Transplant

Read more about our top research and key innovations from 2024:

Transforming Transplant Medicine with Innovation & Experience

Preserving Kidney Function Through Renal Autotransplantation

Program Offers Noninvasive Histotripsy for Cancerous Liver Tumors

Reducing Waitlist Mortality for Pediatric Liver Transplant

Reviewing Thirty Years of Pediatric Heart Transplants

Expert Experience: Achieving Greater Success in Lung Transplantation Through Access & Innovation

The Surgical Robot: Advancing Medicine with Robot-Assisted Technology

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Transforming Transplant Medicine with Innovation & Experience

NewYork‑Presbyterian is consistently one of the leading centers in the nation for transplant volume annually. Having performed more than 20,000 heart, lung, liver, kidney, intestine, and pancreas transplants since these programs began, the institution has been the leading hospital in the U.S. for the past three years in transplant volume, and has the highest number of living donor transplantations in the country. The skill and experience of transplant specialists at Columbia and Weill Cornell Medicine have saved thousands of lives as our physicians and surgeons remain at the forefront of innovating organ transplantation to continue improving outcomes for patients.

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In 2022, the lung transplant program at NewYork‑Presbyterian and Columbia performed its 1,500th transplant.

Preserving Kidney Function Through Renal Autotransplantation

Lloyd Ratner, MD, MPH, director of renal and pancreatic transplantation at NewYork‑Presbyterian and Columbia, has been focused on advancing renal autotransplant, which is a promising option for patients with renal artery aneurysms, loin pain hematuria syndrome, and Nutcracker syndrome. Because conditions that are treated with renal autotransplants don’t fall under just one specialty, his team has developed a multidisciplinary approach involving transplant, urology, and vascular surgery to preserve kidney function, optimize outcomes, and improve patient quality of life. The advancement of this approach over the last year has helped minimize kidney damage that happens in traditional kidney transplants and create more opportunities for patients in need of treatment.

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Preserving Kidney Function Through Renal Autotransplantation

Program Offers Noninvasive Histotripsy for Cancerous Liver Tumors

The NewYork‑Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine Liver Cancer Program became one of the first in the country to offer histotripsy, a non-invasive technology that uses sound waves to destroy cancerous liver tumors. Having several advantages compared to surgery, ablation, and embolization, Juan P. Rocca, MD, MHA, surgical director for the NewYork‑Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine Liver Cancer Program, led a study to demonstrate the efficacy of histotripsy. The study’s results supported the tumor-targeting technology in receiving FDA approval. Because histotripsy preserves as much healthy liver tissue as possible, it could prove to be a game changer for the future of liver cancer treatment.

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Program Offers Noninvasive Histotripsy for Cancerous Liver Tumors

Reducing Waitlist Mortality for Pediatric Liver Transplant

Mercedes Martinez, MD, medical director of the Intestinal Transplant Program at the Center for Liver Disease and Abdominal Organ Transplantation at NewYork‑Presbyterian and Columbia, has advocated for increased use of technical variant liver transplantation (TVLT) to reduce the waitlist mortality for children in need of liver transplantation and has been addressing misconceptions about the lifesaving technique. Based on research, when high-volume transplant centers use TVLT to create liver grafts, fewer children on the liver transplant waiting list die before receiving a transplant. Increased adoption of this technique has the potential to create more opportunities for saving more lives.

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Reducing Waitlist Mortality for Pediatric Liver Transplant 10

Reviewing Thirty Years of Pediatric Heart Transplants

In 2024, Marc Richmond, MD, director of pediatric advanced cardiac care and transplantation at NewYork‑Presbyterian and Columbia, published results from a new report from the Pediatric Heart Transplant Society Registry that outlined the significant progress made in pediatric heart transplantation over the past 30 years, as well as key areas where improvement is still needed. While there have been major advances in post-transplant survival at 30 to 60 days, increases in waitlist survival at six months, higher one-year survival rates, and less death from acute organ rejection and early graft failure, Dr. Richmond is working to develop more progress in cases of single ventricle anatomy and for younger patients.

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Reviewing Thirty Years of Pediatric Heart Transplants 12

Expert Experience: Achieving Greater Success in Lung Transplantation Through Access & Innovation

The lung transplant program at NewYork‑Presbyterian and Columbia is one of the oldest and most experienced centers in the world, having performed more than 1,600 transplants since its inception. Over the course of two decades, Selim Arcasoy, MD, MPH, and his team have been dedicated to continuing to advance lung transplant innovation in a field that has seen many challenges. On the Advances in Care podcast, Dr. Arcasoy discusses his dedication to improving lung allocation, the growth of the transplant program, and the latest tools to ensure that even the sickest patients have the opportunity to receive new lungs.

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Advances in care podcast featuring Dr. Selim Arcasoy

The Surgical Robot: Advancing Medicine with Robot-Assisted Technology

Robotic approaches to surgery are becoming more common as they create opportunities for precise, minimally invasive procedures that allow for improved surgical accuracy and faster recovery times than traditional approaches. On the Advances in Care podcast, Jason Hawksworth, MD, surgical director of adult liver transplant and chief of hepatobiliary surgery at NewYork‑Presbyterian and Columbia, discussed how surgical robots are advancing liver surgery, including living donor transplantation. He was joined on the podcast by two other surgeons who share their key takeaways on how robotics are enhancing clinical practice across specialties and will play a major role in the evolution of patient care.

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Advances in care podcast featuring Dr. Jason Hawksworth