The UAB Department of Surgery welcomes Rajamiyer Venkateswaran, M.D, MBBS, M.S., renowned surgeon, researcher, and health system leader from the United Kingdom as a Professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and the Chief of Heart, Mechanical Circulatory Support, and Lung Transplant.

In the two weeks and six days he’s been practicing at UAB so far, he has completed three heart transplants, one lung transplant, and implanted four left ventricular assist devices.

Venkateswaran, known as “Dr. Venkat” to patients and colleagues alike, is a cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon and now-professor in the UAB Department of Surgery. He performs coronary artery bypass grafting, repairs aneurysms, repairs and replaces mitral and aortic valves, implants left ventricular assist devices, and more – but his subspecialty is transplantation. He brings years of expertise from across the pond to UAB.

Going west: From India to England

Born and raised in India, Venkateswaran completed his medical degree and post-graduate training in general surgery there. He moved to the UK for further education and training, including a residency in Birmingham – of the West Midlands of England, that is.

Most recently, he worked in Manchester, England, where he held prominent roles in his field: he was the Clinical Director for Cardiac Surgery and Transplantation for Wythenshaw Hospital and managed two cardiac surgery units. He also served as the Director of Heart and Lung Transplantation, maintaining a clinical activity level of 50-60 transplants per year. At a national level, he served as the Chair of the Cardiothoracic Transplant Advisory Group for the UK’s National Health Service.

He lived in England for nearly 28 years, raising his two (now-adult) children with his wife, who is also a doctor.

Optimizing transplantation success

In his earlier transplantation roles, Venkateswaran gained key expertise in his subspeciality of cardiovascular and pulmonary transplantation. From 2003 to 2006, he led the largest prospective randomized clinical trial on heart and lung donors. The findings of the trial led to a change in practice in the UK and implemented advanced protocols to enhance the transplantation process. Venkateswaran says that 20% of available heart donations were procured across the UK, but after protocols were put into place, that percentage increased to 30-32%.

Venkateswaran has also been a leader globally in the practice of transplanting organs from DCD - donation after circulatory death donors. Since 2014, DCD donor utilization has been on the rise with technology through an organ care system that allows the heart to start beating again at a human-like, warm functioning state. Venkateswaran was the fourth surgeon in the world – the first in Manchester – to do this procedure. Being able to procure DCD donor organs, he says, increases the donation pool and expands opportunities for those on organ transplant waiting lists.

Why transplantation

When a donor heart works and the recipient is doing well, Venkateswaran feels a great sense of satisfaction. It’s seeing patients thrive with a new “lease on life” that drew him to the field.

However, transplantation is a double-edged sword of emotions – a life ended, a life (often multiple lives) saved.

“There is a loss, someone has died, yes,” Venkateswaran says. “But they gave a gift of life, a life for somebody to cherish. That has to be celebrated.”

Why UAB

Venkateswaran admits that he’s at a stage in life personally and professionally when he could enjoy the hard work he’s invested in the field and continue on the path he’s forged over the formative years of his career. However, when he was approached about the position in the UAB Department of Surgery, he took the opportunity to begin the next phase of his career in the United States. He left his position at the top of the career ladder in Manchester, moved abroad, and learned to drive on the opposite side of the road.

“I thought, I am still young and I still have energy left to do all this,” he said. “One day when I’m retired, I will be able to say I worked in England and the U.S. and did a good job.”

UAB has an internationally-recognized legacy of giants in the field such as Dr. James Kirklin, a world-renowned surgeon scientist who made significant contributions to the field of heart transplantation during his more than 40 years at UAB. Venkateswaran is proud to make his mark at UAB and joins other surgeons and researchers at the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute – which recently celebrated a milestone of 16,000 completed transplant surgeries.

In his role, Venkateswaran has an eye on succession planning. He emphasizes that UAB is the only transplant center in Alabama, where more than 1,200 candidates are on the national organ transplant waiting list – so it’s vital to keep the program thriving. He says he’s already met with Legacy of Hope, Alabama’s nonprofit organ procurement organization, and is eager to share and implement processes he has refined in the U.K.

When we talked, he shared that just days earlier he had been able to train a resident during a heart transplant operation.

“That’s one reason I’m here – to train the younger generation at UAB to keep this program running,” he said.