Amrut Ambardekar, MD
Medical Director Cardiac Transplant Program
The University of Colorado's Adult Heart Transplant Program, one of the
oldest and most established programs in the country, has been in existence
since 1986 and is the only Medicare-certified heart transplant program in
Colorado. This program has consistently achieved high patient and graft
survival rates. A multi-disciplinary approach is used for patient management in
all phases of care from selection through post-operative follow-up. Patient
care, both before and after transplantation is orchestrated by the advanced
heart failure/transplant cardiologists at University of Colorado Hospital
(currently six faculty members are part of this group) in close partnership
with the cardiothoracic surgical faculty. Advanced heart failure/transplant
physicians have special expertise in heart failure, heart transplantation, and
the use of temporary mechanical circulatory assist devices. Care is coordinated
with the patient's referring physician and communication is maintained with the
referring physicians on each visit. The transplant coordinators, transplant
cardiologists, transplant surgeons, pharmacologists, social workers and
transplant financial coordinators are always available to patients during their
visits to clinic or during their hospital stay. The program has considerable
experience with left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) as both
bridge-to-transplant and as destination therapy. Nearly 500 heart transplants have been
performed at University of Colorado Hospital, and we anticipate that 30-40
heart transplants and 40-50 LVAD implants will be performed this coming year.
For
Referring Physicians: If you are
a referring physician, call the 24 hour University of Colorado Hospital Doc
Line at 1-844-285-4555 and ask to
speak to the Advanced Heart Failure-Transplant Cardiologist on call.