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With all these developments in the offing for Westchester Medical Center's liver transplant program, Dr. Wu is eager to have their superior work and excellent outcomes recognized with a Center of Excellence designation. "This will signal to insurers and referring physicians that we perform high-volume, high-quality work," Dr. Wu says. "My goal is simple: anything that any other transplant program can offer, we can do here." F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n , v i s i t www.westchestermedicalcenter.com. ■ COV ER FE AT UR E one week fol low ing t he pat ient's initial appointment. "This is a well-organized method for getting patients into the system and allocating the most appropriate treat- ment," Dr. Diflo says. A Bright Future With a fourth transplant surgeon scheduled to join them this year, Dr. Wu expects his team to branch out into living donor transplantation and pediatric organ transplant. They also want to achieve a Center of Excellence designa- tion for Westchester Medical Center. "I was involved in pediatric liver trans- plants at the University of California, San Francisco," Dr. Veillette says. "I'm eager to help Dr. Wu start a pediatric transplant program here." Dr. Wu is known for having performed the youngest successful living donor pedi- atric liver transplant — the patient was 19 days old — and for the 100 percent survival rate he achieved in pediatric tra nspla nts during 11 yea rs at the University of Iowa. "We have performed two pediatric liver transplants at Westchester Medical Center so far," he says. "With our excel- lent children's hospital and pediatric gastroenterology and hepatology ser- vices, I think we can develop a sizeable pediatric liver, kidney and small bowel transplant program here." With the demand for donor organs high and waiting lists long, living donor liver transplant is becoming an increasingly attractive option. While this program is still awaiting approval at Westchester Medical Center, Dr. Veillette, who has experience in living donation, is excited about bringing this opportunity to patients at Westchester Medical Center and their families. "With donated organ allocation across the country so uneven, living donor transplant has the potential to save lives," he says. "It is a high-stakes procedure, requiring rigorous preoperative workups for both the donor and recipient. Two surgical teams are required for the tandem procedures, which can take up to 18 hours. However, with a suc- cessful living donor program, patients who would otherwise have died while on the transplant waiting list have a chance at life." Youmin Wu, MD, Chief of Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Westchester Medical Center, and Professor of Surgery, New York Medical College YOUMIN WU, MD CHIEF OF TRANSPLANT and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Westchester Medical Center and Professor of Surgery at New York Medical College, Dr. Wu learned his craft from the pioneer of liver transplant surgery, Thomas Starzl, MD. After graduating from Nanjing Medical University in China, where he trained in pediatric surgery, Dr. Wu traveled to the United States to pursue a fellowship at the Thomas Starzl Transplant Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1993, he joined the faculty of the University of Iowa and developed a transplant program there, after which he traveled to the University of Arkansas to revitalize its program. Under his leadership, the University of Arkansas Liver Transplant Program was ranked first in the nation by Healthgrades. Dr. Wu invented cavaplasty, a surgical technique resulting in faster transplant surgeries, shorter operative times and improved patient outcomes. He has performed more than 1,000 organ trans- plant surgeries, and his survival rate for pediatric transplant surgeries was 100 percent during his 11 years at the University of Iowa. Dr. Wu continues to refine the cavaplasty procedure, and now, his liver transplant patients can expect operative times of fewer than four hours on average, compared to previous procedure times of 12 hours or more. Listen to Dr. Wu discuss advances in cavaplasty at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=s6Rd1DyndJA. 1 0 | Mid Hudson MD NEWS ■ M D N E W S . CO M