University of Florida offers a one-year advanced lung transplant fellowship. This program is designed for individuals who have completed a three-year fellowship in Pulmonary & Critical Care. This fellowship also provides training in Pulmonary Vascular Disease and Heart-Lung Transplant. Our lung transplant program has a multidisciplinary team that performs more than 75 lung transplants a year, and incorporates ex-vivo perfusion strategy to increase donor pool. Under the direct supervision and teaching from the medical and surgical faculty of the Heart-Lung & Lung Transplantation Program, the trainee will become UNOS certified physician by the end of the fellowship.
Requirements to become UNOS Certified Lung Transplant Physician
- Completing a Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellowship.
The trainee needs to maintain logs:
- The fellow should have participated in the primary care of 15 or more lung and/or heart/lung transplant patients from the time of their transplant.
- Should be involved in the management of 15 or more lung transplant recipients in their first three months of the post-operative course.
- Have been an observer in 3 or more lung or heart/lung procurement procedures This must be supported by a recipient log.
Specific Objectives
- To review guidelines for recipient selection for lung transplantation.
- To understand outcomes following transplantation including survival and physiologic results.
- To understand the complications following lung transplantation.
- To demonstrate basic understanding in the management of lung transplant recipients in the immediate post-operative period in the ICU. This includes mechanical ventilator management, management of patients coming in cardiopulmonary bypass, management of VV ECMO.
- To have an understanding of the immunosuppresive medications used in lung transplantation.
- Demonstrate understanding of alternative therapies for end-stage lung diseases, such as medical and surgical therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension.
- Demonstrate proficiency in flexible fiber-optic bronchoscopy, broncho-alveolar lavage, and trans-bronchial biopsy and other invasive procedures as indicated.
- To demonstrate basic understanding of VV and VA ECMO.
Core Lung Transplantation Curriculum
Each transplant fellow must complete the following core set of rotation blocks which are to last a minimum of 4 weeks each:
- Inpatient Transplantation Block (3 months): During this block, the trainee is responsible for following on a daily basis an average of 6-8 patients that are to be assigned by the in patient attending every Monday during sign-out rounds. The trainee is expected to round during one whole weekend for each of the blocks along with the assigned faculty member.
- Cardio – Thoracic Intensive Care Unit (3 months): During this block, the trainee will directly manage the immediate post-operative critical care issues of all those lung, heart/lung transplant recipients and ECMO under the supervision
During these blocks, the trainee will also go to the operating room to observe a minimum of 3 transplantation surgeries.
- Bronchoscopy Suite Block (3 months): During this block, the trainee is responsible for performing procedures assigned to this suite. Trainee must complete a history and physical, as well as discuss the available imaging prior to each bronchoscopy. There are no weekend responsibilities during this block.
Electives (1 month):
- Thoracic Pathology
- Transplant Infectious Disease
- Medical Intensive Care Unit
- Thoracic Radiology
- Outpatient (clinic) Elective: includes transplant, ILD, PH and CF clinics
Research (1 month):
- Outcome research or a quality improvement project.
The other three 4-weeks are vacation and CME.