Lorna Mills Dove, MD

I am involved in numerous clinical protocols investigating new immunosuppressive drugs and/or new combinations of existing medications in renal transplant patients, both newly transplanted patients and those with long-term functioning transplants.

Dr. Arcasoy was recruited to Columbia University as the Medical Program Director of Lung Transplantation in 2001 from the University of Pennsylvania. After his recruitment, he completely turned around the Lung Transplantation Program to rank amongst the top 5 to 10 programs in the country with regard to volume and patient survival. Under his leadership, the Lung Transplant Program has been performing more than 80 transplants annually. In October 2019, Dr. Arcasoy and his team celebrated their 1000th lung transplant since 2001. Despite high transplant volumes and very sick pretransplant candidates, the survival of lung transplant recipients has remained stellar. Currently, 1-year survival of lung transplant recipients at Columbia University is 90%, 5-year survival 65%, and 10-year survival 42%. Dr. Arcasoy has gained national and international reputation with various leadership roles in professional organizations and scientific societies. He previously chaired the Thoracic Organ Transplant Committee of the AST and the Transplant Network Steering Committee of the ACCP. He recently served in the Thoracic Organ Transplant Committee of the OPTN to develop Continuous Distribution of Lungs. He is currently the Associate Chair for Advanced Lung Failure and Transplantation in the Standards and Guidelines Committee of the ISHLT.

Dr. Ratner is Professor of Surgery and Director of Renal and Pancreatic Transplantation at Columbia University. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, Dr. Ratner was on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and served as the Chief of Solid Organ Transplantation at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Dr. Ratner was responsible for dramatic growth of the kidney transplant program at CUIMC. He also established the pancreas transplant program, and the Kidney Autotransplant Program. He introduced robotic surgery to our kidney transplant program. Access to organ transplantation has been Dr. Ratner's major academic interest. Dr. Ratner has been a leading innovator in transplantation for over two decades. In 1993, he performed the world's first dual renal transplant. In 1995 (with Dr. Louis Kavoussi) he performed the first laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, and set the stage for its widespread adoption, which resulted in a profound increase in living donor kidney transplantation. Dr. Ratner has made significant contributions in overcoming immunologic incompatibilities that prohibited transplantation. He devised the plasmapheresis/IVIg protocol for alloantibody desensitization in 1998. In 2001, Dr. Ratner orchestrated the second paired-kidney exchange in the U.S. Subsequently, he arranged the first paired kidney exchanges in both Pennsylvania and New York. More recently Dr. Ratner has been a leading proponent of including compatible donor/recipient pairs in kidney exchanges. And, his more contemporary work has looked at the organizational and regulatory barriers to access to care. All of these strategies have increased organ availability and access to transplantation. Additionally, he has made important contributions to improve living donor safety. For his work, Dr. Ratner has received numerous awards and honors. And, he has been invited to speak and operate at various venues around the world. Dr. Ratner has authored or co-authored over 240 peer-reviewed publications, and has been a federally funded investigator. His publications have been cited over 20,000 times. He served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the LiveOnNY (formerly the New York Organ Donor Network), and has served on numerous national committees including the Board of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). He recently completed a term as the President of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and previously served as that Society's Treasurer.Dr. Ratner originally hails from Brooklyn, NY. He received his undergraduate education at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He received his M.D. from Hahnemann University. His general surgery training was obtained at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He completed a Fellowship in Transplantation Surgery and Immunology at Washington University. In 2011 Dr. Ratner completed a Master of Public Health with a focus on health care policy, administration and management.