On Nov. 24, Vanderbilt University Medical Center patient Pam Smith will have a low-key lunch with a longtime friend to celebrate reaching 25 years post transplant.

Ashish Shah, M.D., has joined Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute (VHVI) as director of Heart Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support.

A new genetic model has generated new strategies for promoting tolerance to transplants – and improving long-term transplant outcomes – in the background of autoimmune disease.

In April 1986 Bonnie Davis of Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee, became the first female patient to receive a heart transplant at Vanderbilt University Hospital. On Oct. 3, she will return to campus to participate in the Greater Nashville Heart Walk.

Carrie Kitko, M.D., has joined Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt as associate professor of Pediatrics and director of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Program in the Division of Hematology/Oncology.

Eight days after the pediatric liver transplant program at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt was launched, 10-year-old Aubree Vanzant received her liver.