World-class transplant care, from a collaborative care team that includes you.

At UNC, referring physicians are an integral part of our care team. Whether you’re collaborating with our medical team to help determine the best course of treatment for your patient, or simply keeping up with a valued patient’s condition on a day-to-day basis, you’ll appreciate the extra lengths we go to keep you involved in your patient’s care while at UNC.

Since 1968, when we performed our very first organ transplant, UNC has stayed at the forefront of transplant care. And our research has focused on constantly searching for new techniques and medications to attain even better results.

At UNC, though, it’s not just our care that’s world-class. It’s also our caring. Patients here are treated by the finest surgeons, specialists, nurses and support staff. And just as important, they’re treated with a special compassion and respect for human dignity that truly distinguishes our program.

The recently expanded bed capacity at UNC Medical Center allows us to serve a greater number of transplant patients. In addition, our efficient patient transfer process allows us to see new patients within 24 hours of referral in most cases.

Why choose UNC for potential transplant patients?

Patients at UNC benefit from our strong emphasis on collaboration between referring physicians, and clinical and research teams throughout the medical center. That collaboration has led to important advances in immunosuppressive medicines for transplant patients, along with the creation of a special team dedicated to preventing infections in transplant patients.

UNC also leads the way in furthering research on leading-edge techniques that give more patients access to life-saving organ transplants. Our kidney transplant program has had proven success with the use of Expanded Criteria Donor (ECD) and Donation after Cardiac Death (DCD) to make more kidneys available to critically ill patients.

In addition, UNC is one of only a few programs in the world conducting research in the field of ex-vivo lung perfusion. This highly specialized technique allows the medical team to take lungs that might traditionally be considered unsuitable for transplant, and repair them outside the donor before transplanting them into the patient, an especially important step forward because of the damage that often occurs to otherwise-healthy lungs during end-of-life treatment.

Learn more about candidacy and referring patients to UNC for organ transplants: