Innovations in Review 2025
The transplant programs at NewYork-Presbyterian rank among the best in the nation for volume and survival. Specialists from Columbia and Weill Cornell Medicine lead the field in medical and surgical management of transplant patients, expanding access to lifesaving procedures and improving patient outcomes. In 2025, teams across the institution achieved remarkable milestones, including performing New York’s first heart-lung-liver and fully robotic liver transplant surgeries; developing noninvasive methods to monitor graft rejection in pediatric patients; and successfully treating multiple pediatric and adult patients through innovative domino procedures. These achievements reflect our steadfast commitment to advancing treatment for all patients.
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Read more about our top research and key innovations from 2025:
Integrated Team Performs New York’s First Heart-Lung-Liver Transplant
Transplant Team Achieves First Fully Robotic Living Donor Liver Transplant In NY
Split-Root Domino Partial Heart Transplant Saves Three Pediatric Patients
Noninvasive Approach To Rejection Surveillance Can Improve QOL For Pediatric Heart Patients
Pioneering The First Adult Domino Split-Liver Transplant In The U.S.
A multidisciplinary transplant team at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia performed the first heart-lung-liver transplant in New York on a patient with pulmonary arterial hypertension, heart failure, and congestive liver cirrhosis. The 14-hour surgery required months of preparation to develop a transplant and post-surgical care plan tailored to the patient’s complex condition. The team’s careful coordination demonstrated how skill, collaboration, and surgical and medical integration are leading to more successful outcomes in multiorgan transplantation.
A liver transplant team at NewYork-Presbyterian performed New York’s first fully robotic living donor liver transplant, in which both donor and recipient underwent robotic procedures. Led by Juan Rocca, M.D., MHA, surgical director of the Weill Cornell Medicine Liver Cancer Program, and Benjamin Samstein, M.D., chief of liver transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, this achievement marked their team’s second major advancement in minimally invasive liver transplant within a year. Previously, they had performed the state’s first fully robotic liver transplant on a patient who received a deceased donor organ. Both surgeries were part of a multiphase effort to advance robotic liver surgery at the institution, as it offers faster recovery and better perioperative outcomes compared to open and laparoscopic alternatives.
A multidisciplinary pediatric heart transplant team at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of Children’s Hospital of New York, led by Andrew Goldstone, M.D., Ph.D., surgical director of heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support and pediatric heart valve transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia, is among the first in the nation to perform a split-root domino partial heart transplant. This series of surgeries allowed a pediatric recipient of a donor heart to donate her healthy aortic and pulmonary valves to two other children with congenital heart conditions. Physicians and surgeons see the success of the surgery as progress toward innovative solutions to treating pediatric valve disease and are exploring ways to expand opportunities for living heart valve donation.
Endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) is the standard approach to monitoring for rejection in heart transplant patients, but for pediatric patients, this invasive procedure can be extremely disruptive to their lives. A study led by Irene Lytrivi, M.D., a pediatric cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia, sought to find a noninvasive alternative that would enable physicians to monitor for rejection without the need for periodic hospitalizations and anesthesia. Her research investigated the efficacy of donor-derived cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (dd-cfDNA) testing to detect acute rejection and the presence of donor-specific antibodies in patients, and found that dd-cfDNA screening is a valid method for ruling out graft rejection and can reliably replace surveillance EMBs due to its very high negative predictive value (NPV). Future research will focus on establishing age-specific cutoffs and further examine the integration of dd-cfDNA surveillance into a comprehensive testing panel to address the challenge of organ rejection in pediatric patients.
Tomoaki Kato, M.D., chief of the Division of Abdominal Organ Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia, led a groundbreaking liver transplant that provided lifesaving organs to three patients. The series of surgeries started when an altruistic living donor donated a portion of their liver to the first recipient, who suffered from a metabolic disease that made their liver unsuitable for them but still viable for transplantation to two other people. With more than 30 multidisciplinary specialists involved, including 12 surgeons in four operating rooms running simultaneously, this procedure demonstrates how NewYork-Presbyterian’s integrated transplant program is uniquely positioned to advance the field of living donor and multiorgan transplantation and expand organ availability.
An integrated team of transplant hepatologists, surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, physician assistants, and other specialists at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine achieved a significant milestone in 2025 by performing New York’s first fully robotic liver transplant. On the Advances in Care podcast, Juan Rocca, M.D., MHA, NewYork-Presbyterian transplant surgeon and surgical director of the Weill Cornell Medicine Liver Cancer Program, shared insights on the advantages of a robotic surgical approach, outlined the careful planning and preparation involved in this groundbreaking procedure, and discussed aspirations for the institution’s program and the broader field of liver transplantation to advance the use of robotics as a minimally invasive solution.
On the Advances in Care podcast, Andrew Goldstone, M.D., Ph.D., surgical director of heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support and pediatric heart valve transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia, recounted how a multidisciplinary team performed a complex pediatric split-root domino partial heart transplant. The procedure involved a series of surgeries that enabled a pediatric recipient of a deceased donor heart to donate their healthy aortic and pulmonary valves to two other children with congenital heart conditions. Dr. Goldstone also discussed how this milestone achievement and other advancements in pediatric cardiac surgery are facilitating innovative living valve transplants that can help more patients in need.
