An international team of cardiac surgeons, physicians, anesthesiologists, donor coordinators and nurses from the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City, the Philippines, recently visited the Vanderbilt Transplant Center to observe its heart and lung transplant programs.
The delegation is planning to establish a new heart transplant program in the Philippines, serving a population of 115 million people, said Avenilo L. Aventura Jr., MD, executive director of the Philippine Heart Center.
Over the multidisciplinary team’s two-week visit to VUMC, it observed all aspects of heart and lung transplant, Aventura said, including traveling for organ procurement and observation of transplant surgeries. The team witnessed immediate postoperative care in the intensive care and stepdown units, observing posttransplant rehabilitation and studying new research. In addition to the adult transplant program, the team also observed transplant protocols at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and visited CELA (Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment) for simulation.
The Vanderbilt Transplant Center is “like a well-oiled machine,” Aventura said. “People here are very nice. Everybody went out of their way to help.”
Aventura said the Philippines has kidney and liver transplant programs but has not attempted heart transplants since the 1990s. Once returning home, the team hopes to perform heart transplants this year, pending organ availability.
Observing large transplant centers such as the Vanderbilt Transplant Center is vital for the Philippine delegation, because such procedures require a large, multidisciplinary team using complex techniques, from obtaining donor organs to completing transplants and taking care of patients post-op.
It is important for the team to not only witness the transplant surgeries themselves but understand the protocols that surround them. That includes how to determine who is a good candidate for a transplant, how to keep patients alive during transplants using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and how to manage patients posttransplant with frequent laboratory tests and a balance of multiple medications.
“This opportunity has opened avenues to establish collaboration with the different specialties to strengthen the program, and having learned the protocols, appreciated the system (including technology), and witnessed the procedures, our team shall jump-start the transplant program to serve the Filipino people,” Aventura concluded.
In November, a delegation of doctors from Ukraine made a similar visit to the Vanderbilt Transplant Center to observe organ transplants and protocols, for the third year in a row.
“This is now the fifth international heart transplant team that has come to Vanderbilt to learn from our experiences,” said Ashish Shah, MD, professor and chair of Cardiac Surgery.
“These programs have many choices of transplant centers to visit, many much closer to home. Yet, they come, and each has been impressed by our willingness to collaborate and teach what we have learned — both the good and the bad,” added Shah, who holds the Alfred Blalock Directorship in Cardiac Surgery.
Dawn Eck, MSN, ACNP-BC, MMHC, director of Thoracic Transplant and Organ Recovery, said, “It has been our honor to host this team as they plan to reintroduce heart transplantation in the Philippines. Their enthusiasm has been contagious. Their experienced multidisciplinary team is poised for success and excited to bring this lifesaving option to their country. We’re happy to play a small role in their endeavor.”
