College of California San Francisco Well being’s Lung Transplant program has named the top-performing program within the nation by Interlink.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways
- UCSF Well being’s Lung Transplant Program has been acknowledged because the nation’s top-performing lung transplant program by Interlink for the third consecutive 12 months.
- This system constantly outperforms nationwide benchmarks, reaching considerably better-than-expected post-transplant outcomes for over 13 years.
- UCSF has pioneered modern applied sciences and expanded donor pool methods, enhancing transplant quantity and affected person survival charges.
UCSF Well being’s Lung Transplant program has been awarded Interlink Well being’s 2025 Chairman’s Award for Transplant Excellence because the top-performing lung transplant program within the nation. The united states program, which is the largest lung transplant program within the Western US, was chosen as the highest performing program for lung transplantation for the third consecutive 12 months.
Every year Interlink, a nationwide managed care firm, identifies the nation’s top-performing transplant applications inside their Applications of Excellence community. The award is given to applications that had the very best total high quality scores within the U.S. The award evaluation relies on minimal annual transplant quantity, Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) risk-adjusted information, Heart for Worldwide Blood & Marrow Transplant Analysis (CIBMTR) information and Interlink’s efficiency modeling program calculations.
“I’m extremely happy with our crew,” stated Jasleen Kukreja, MD, program and surgical director of the UCSF Lung Transplant Program. “Successful this award three years in a row speaks to their coronary heart, ability and relentless dedication to our sufferers. It’s such an honor to be working alongside such a rare group.”
Steve Hays, MD, medical director of the us Lung Transplant Program, believes the award displays the experience and devotion of the whole transplant group. “Now we have innovated care of our sufferers by fostering a tradition of steady enchancment, leveraging intradisciplinary care and using new applied sciences,” he stated.
In 2024, the us Lung Transplant Program carried out greater than 100 transplants, making it considered one of a handful of medical facilities within the nation to succeed in that milestone. As well as, the us Lung Transplant Program is the one lung transplant program within the U.S. to attain considerably higher than anticipated post-transplant outcomes constantly for over 13 years, in keeping with information from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.
Over the past 20 years, the median survival for UCSF sufferers who underwent lung transplantation climbed from 3.5 years to 10.5 years. In 2001, three-year survival for UCSF sufferers was 50%. In 2021, it reached 90%. In comparison with different transplant applications within the U.S., UCSF outperforms these applications for each one-year and three-year affected person survival charges. As of January 2025, the one-year affected person survival price for UCSF Well being sufferers was 95% in comparison with a nationwide common of 89% for transplant facilities within the U.S. The three-year survival price for UCSF sufferers was 86% versus the nationwide common of 72%.
UCSF’s lung transplant program was the primary in Northern California to undertake a number of improvements which have elevated the amount of lung transplants whereas enhancing affected person outcomes. This system was an early adopter of an ex-vivo lung perfusion platform – TransMedics Organ Care System – to maintain organs viable outdoors the physique for prolonged durations of time and permit the transplant crew to evaluate if organs are appropriate for transplantation. This system was additionally one of many first facilities within the nation to place new temperature-controlled gadgets such because the Paragonix LungGuard transport system into use for donor lung preservation, facilitating journey from longer distances to soundly procure organs and enhance the standard of preservation.
This system not too long ago expanded donor pool and affected person entry with elevated donation after circulatory demise (DCD) donor organ utilization from 2% to 9% (per United Community for Organ Sharing). It efficiently expanded hepatitis C-positive donor program to extend quantity and cut back waitlist mortality.
