By the time a team at UHN's Toronto General Hospital completed what would become the world's first successful lung transplant in November 1983, there had been 44 previous attempts around the world.
In the more than 40 years since that historic moment, when Tom Hall became the first long-term successful lung transplant recipient, UHN has continued to innovate in the field of organ transplantation.
Among the many transformative breakthroughs in the Toronto Lung Transplant Program within UHN's Ajmera Transplant Centre is the world's first successful double-lung transplant; development of LPD lung preservation solution; invention of the Toronto Ex-Vivo Lung Perfusion system, which doubled the number of donor lungs available for transplant at UHN; using drones to safely and quickly transport lungs; and harnessing artificial intelligence to enhance patient outcomes.
"I see so many things today that I never thought would be possible," says Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, Chief of Innovation at UHN and Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, the largest in the world.
"In the early years of lung transplant, we really just celebrated survival," Dr. Keshavjee says in a new documentary short from UHN, The Future of Transplant. "Now, the focus is on not just longevity of life but quality of life. Are they working again? Are they playing tennis again?
"Have you returned the person to a meaningful life after lung transplant? That's another luxury we never dreamed we'd get to."
The documentary features interviews with a host of UHN clinicians and scientists — past and present — discussing their work and its impact on research, innovation and patient care in lung transplantation. Those efforts are cited by Newsweek magazine as one of the reasons UHN is ranked third among the world's top hospitals.
The four-decade journey of The Future of Transplant builds toward the ultimate dream of the team, which is creating lungs from stem cells that can be repaired, without needing to be replaced.
"Can we actually put ourselves out of business and say you never need to replace a lung because we can repair the one you've got," says Dr. Keshavjee. "I think that's a very important part of the future of what we're doing."
