Approved as NJ’s Only Lung Transplantation Program
Newark Beth Israel Medical Center was approved
in 2006 by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services
for lung transplantation. Designated as the only licensed lung transplant
program in the state, it offers residents increased access to single
and double lung transplantation for the treatment of severe non- malignant
pulmonary disease.
Between the years 2000 and 2004 more than 330
New Jersey residents were newly registered with the region’s two
organ procurement agencies for lung transplant. During that same time
period, only 121 New Jersey residents received the life saving surgery —primarily
in Pennsylvania and New York. “A permanently licensed lung transplant
program at NBIMC will provide better and more efficient care for the
people in New Jersey,” says Mark J. Zucker, M.D., J.D., Director,
Heart Failure Treatment and Transplantation at Newark Beth Israel Medical
Center. “It will increase organ donation, reduce the waiting time
for transplant and ensure that people of all socio-economic classes
have access to treatment.”
The Center for Advanced Heart and Lung Disorders and Transplantation
Medicine at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center is in the process of building
a comprehensive program which will prolong and improve the quality of
life. The team will include a transplant surgeon, transplant pulmonologist,
and an experienced transplant anesthesiologist, as well as a lung transplant
coordinator and an array of psychosocial support services. Collaboration
with Newark Beth Israel Medical Center’s Department of Pulmonary
Medicine, Pulmonary Hypertension Program and its Cardiac Transplant
program ensure a broad approach to care. While a nationwide search is
being conducted to recruit physician leaders, the staff and facility
are being readied. The Nursing Department recently hosted a consulting
scholar from the University of Virginia who lectured on the pre- and
post-care of a lung transplant patients.
The community outreach and patient education aspects of the new lung
transplant program will be developed with the experience
and expertise of the highly successful heart transplant
program at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, as
well as the widely respected combined renal and
pancreas transplant program at Newark Beth Israel
Medical Center and Saint Barnabas Medical Center that ranks
sixth in the nation by volume.
Newark Beth Israel Medical Center has provided lung transplantation
since 1992 with case-by-case approval by the NJDHSS. “Isolated
transplants offer new life for each of those patients,
but we are dedicated to providing the quality and access
that only a permanent lung transplant program can
offer,” concludes
Dr. Zucker.
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