Indian University Health is national player in multi-organ transplants

Indianapolis Business Journal | Scott Olson

When Dr. Joseph Tector helped launch Indiana University Health’s multi-visceral transplant program in 2003, the network’s chief of transplantation did so for one reason—“to help people with no options,” he said.

The number of the procedures the hospital has performed has grown from just one in 2003 to 25 last year—the most of any hospital in the country.

Yet the number represents just 5 percent of all organ transplants conducted by IU Health. Altogether, the hospital performed 500 organ transplants in 2010, ranking it fourth in the nation.

As just one of a half-dozen hospitals that do multi-organ transplants, IU Health has accumulated a certain amount of prestige that transcends profits.

“It may not necessarily represent a money-maker, but they do have the capacity to have a halo effect,” said Dr. Alan Langnas, chief of transplantation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “If you can do those, you can do other stuff, as well.”

Read more: http://www.ibj.com/indiana-university-health-is-national-player-in-multiorgan-transplants/PARAMS/article/30929