More than three decades ago, J. Harold Helderman, M.D., medical director of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center, joined a handful of colleagues from across the country to create a society for transplant physicians.

A Vanderbilt University Medical Center postdoctoral research fellow in the area of transplant outcomes research has added health literacy as a metric to an existing battery of surveys that assess patient-reported outcomes in Vanderbilt transplant patients.

Thanks to a series of altruistic donations that began in Colorado, three people who were waiting for a kidney received a life-saving transplant, including a patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The Vanderbilt Transplant Center, one of the largest organ transplant programs in the Southeast, is on pace to surpass last year’s transplant totals with 254 solid organ transplantations to date.

Pediatric cardiac surgeons at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt have performed the state’s first ABO incompatible heart transplant in a 2-month-old patient.

Tacrolimus is essential for patients receiving new hearts, kidneys and other organ transplants. The drug suppresses the body’s immune system, helping to prevent rejection.