The International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT), established in 1981, is a professional organization committed to research and education in heart and lung disease and transplantation. It holds annual scientific meetings and publishes '' The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation''. It also holds the worlds largest registry of heart and lung transplant data.

Origin

The initial idea for the society came about at a meeting in November 1980 in Miami, Florida, during the annual meeting of the

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and death ...

, and was led by Michael L. Hess. The International Society of Heart Transplantation had formed earlier in 1973. Other founding members include

Edward Stinson Edward Anderson Stinson, Jr. (July 11, 1893 – January 26, 1932) was an American pilot and aircraft manufacturer. "Eddie" Stinson was the founder of Stinson Aircraft Company. At the time of his death in 1932 in an air crash, he was the world's ...

, Andrea Hastillo, Jacques Losman, Mark Thompson, Jack Copeland, Sir Terence English, Stuart Jamieson and

Michael Kaye Michael Arthur Chadwick Porter Kaye (11 January 1916 – 22 September 1988) was an English first-class cricketer and British Army officer. Kaye played first-class cricket predominantly for Cambridge University Cricket Club, Cambridge Universi ...

. The first official meeting was held in 1981. In 1981, cardiac transplantation pioneer

Norman Shumway Norman Edward Shumway (February 9, 1923 – February 10, 2006) was a pioneer of heart surgery at Stanford University. He was the 67th president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the first to perform an adult human to human ...

, became the lifetime honorary president and thereafter, the society widened its membership internationally and across specialities including

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

Registry

The ISHLT holds a record of over 120,000 heart transplants performed between 1967 and 2020.

ISHLT Awards

Philip K. Caves award

Since 1982, the ISHLT has awarded one of its highest awards in the name of surgeon Philip Caves, who pioneered the procedure of transvenous

endomyocardial biopsy Endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) is an invasive procedure used routinely to obtain small samples of heart muscle, primarily for detecting rejection of a donor heart following heart transplantation. It is also used as a diagnostic tool in some heart ...

to assess for rejection following heart transplantation.

Lifetime achievement awards

The ISHLT lifetime achievement award is given to those whose lifetime work has "made a significant contribution toward improving the care of patients with advanced heart or lung disease" In its thirty eight year history, only seven have been awarded. Norman Shumway received the first award in 1996.

Keith Reemtsma Keith Reemtsma (5 December 1925 – 23 June 2000) was an American transplant surgeon, best known for the cross-species kidney transplantation operation from chimpanzee to human in 1964. With only the early immunosuppressants and no long-term ...

received the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. In 2012, Sharon Hunt, who has published more than 200 papers related to particularly organ rejection, post-operative care and bridge-to-transplant, was awarded the ISHLT Lifetime achievement award. In 2014, the award was bestowed to Sir Terence English for "outstanding achievements and tireless dedication in the field of heart and lung transplantation". He served as a Cardiothoracic Surgeon to Papworth and Addenbrooke Hospital, between 1972 and 1995. In 2018, the seventh ISHLT lifetime achievement award was presented to

O. H. Frazier O. H. "Bud" Frazier is a heart surgeon and director of cardiovascular surgery research at the Texas Heart Institute (THI), best known for his work in mechanical circulatory support (MCS) of failing hearts using left ventricular assist devices (L ...

for his pioneering work in the treatment of severe

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

, and in the development and innovation of heart transplantation and artificial devices. Michael Hess received the award in 2021.

ISHLT lifetime service award

Kaye received this in 1996 and Losman in 1997.

ISHLT O.H. Frazier award

Since 2014, the ISHLT "O.H. Frazier Award", a grant in Mechanical Circulatory Systems Translational Research has been awarded, initially sponsored by HeartWare and later sponsored by

Medtronic Medtronic plc is an American medical device company. The company's operational and executive headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and its legal headquarters are in Ireland due to its acquisition of Irish-based Covidien in 2015. While it ...

ISHLT pioneer award

The first 'pioneer award' was awarded to

Vladimir Demikhov Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov (russian: Владимир Петрович Демихов; July 31, 1916 – November 22, 1998) was a Soviet scientist and organ transplantation pioneer, who performed several transplants in the 1940s and 1 ...

on 25 April 1989 in Munich, Germany, by

Christian Cabrol Christian Emile Cabrol (16 September 1925 – 16 June 2017) was a French cardiac surgeon best known for performing Europe's first heart transplant at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in 1968. Cabrol was born in the Chézy-sur-Marne, Aisne region of ...

. Twenty years later, in 2009, Cabrol received the 'pioneer award'.

ISHLT distinguished educator award

In 2014, the first distinguished educator award was awarded to James Kirklin.

Past presidents

1981–1990

1990–2001

2000–2011

2010 onwards

References

External links

ISHLT history archives''The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation''
{{authority control Transplant organizations Organizations established in 1981