Milestones of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center’s First 25 Years

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1988

Dr. William Frist and Dr. Harold Helderman are named surgical and medical directors of the newly developed Vanderbilt Transplant Center, centralizing transplant programs within a single entity

Performs Tennessee’s first living unrelated kidney transplant

Renal Transplant Fellowship established

1989

Performs Tennessee’s first neonatal heart transplant

Performs its first combined kidney/pancreas transplant

1990

Lung transplant program launches

Performs its first single lung transplant

Performs Tennessee’s first allogeneic-unrelated bone marrow transplant

1991

Liver transplant program launches

Performs its first liver transplant

Transplant Infectious Disease Fellowship established

Opening of VUMC’s dedicated myelosuppression unit

1992

Vanderbilt Transplant Center organizes return of the organ donation statement to the Tennessee driver’s license

1993

Dr. C. Wright Pinson appointed surgical director of Vanderbilt Transplant Center when Frist steps down to pursue U.S. Senate seat

Transplant psychiatry program established

1994

Performs Tennessee’s first successful double lung transplant

1995

Vanderbilt establishes Transplant Return-to-Work program, the first of its kind in the U.S.

2000

Vanderbilt establishes Transplant Outcomes Research and Quality of Life program (and is recognized nationally as premier leader in this area)

Performs its first triple-organ transplant of heart, lung and liver (one of only eight performed worldwide)

2003

Performs Tennessee’s first paired exchange kidney transplant

2004

Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt opens

2006

Transplant PGY2 Pharmacy Residency program established

2008

Performs its first simultaneous heart and kidney transplant

Heart Failure/Cardiac Transplant Fellowship established

2010

Berlin device (VAD) used for first time in Tennessee

2011

Dr. Seth Karp recruited from Harvard to serve as center’s director

2012

Kidney transplant program celebrates 50 years and surpasses 4,000 kidney transplants

2013

Heart transplant program is first in Tennessee to use the Heartware miniaturized ventricular assist device (VAD) for long-term support

Vanderbilt ranks among top five VAD programs in the nation

Vanderbilt Transplant Center surpasses a record 400 solid organ transplants in a single year

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