The University of Arizona Medical Center has reactivated its renowned heart transplant program.
The program had been on hiatus since December. The hospital recently recruited Dr. Scott D. Lick to head the heart transplant program, and Dr. Nancy K. Sweitzer to head the UA’s Sarver Heart Center and the division of cardiology.
Lick, who began his job April 1, specializes in adult heart surgery, heart and lung transplantation and mechanical circulatory support.
He has 20 years experience in cardiac surgery and heart and lung transplantation. He is also a researcher, and studies artificial lung development. He received his medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1987 and completed his internship and general surgery residency and cardiothoracic surgery residency at the UA.
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As a resident he worked with Dr. Jack Copeland , former chief of the UA division of cardiothoracic surgery, who has been recognized for performing the world’s first successful bridge to heart transplant with a total artificial heart.
Sweitzer is an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist and physiologist, specializing in heart failure, mechanical circulatory support and heart transplant patient care.
UA surgeons at UAMC performed the state’s first heart transplant in 1979, and have performed 891 heart transplant procedures to date.
The hospital’s lung transplant program remains on hiatus, but with Lick in place the aim is to reactivate that program, too.
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