Transplant and mechanical circulatory support fellowships

About this area of training

Transplant and mechanical circulatory support (MCS) fellowships train surgeons in the care of patients with end-stage heart and lung disease. Programmes typically combine donor assessment and procurement, heart and lung transplantation, durable and temporary ventricular support, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

The work is multidisciplinary, so most fellowships place the surgeon alongside heart failure cardiologists, intensivists, perfusionists and coordinators. Some posts are surgeon-focused clinical fellowships; others are shorter or research-oriented.

Listed fellowships

Open and upcoming calls come first. Select a fellowship for eligibility, application route and its official source.

What training typically covers

• Orthotopic heart transplantation and heart-lung transplantation
• Single and bilateral lung transplantation
• Durable LVAD and biventricular support implantation
• Temporary MCS and ECMO for cardiogenic shock and respiratory failure
• Donor selection, organ procurement and recipient listing decisions
• Long-term follow-up, rejection and complications management

Who it suits

Most programmes expect completed cardiac, thoracic or cardiothoracic surgery training. Some accept cardiology, anaesthesia or intensive care applicants for the support and shock-team components, and the programme page says which. Transplant programmes are often national or regional, so licensing, language and organ-allocation rules matter.

Where to train

Countries: United States (22), Canada (6), Brazil (5), Spain (3), United Kingdom (3), Australia (2), Austria (1), Belgium (1), China (1), Netherlands (1)

Institutions: Washington University School of Medicine / Barnes-Jewish Hospital (3), InCor — Instituto do Coração, HCFMUSP (Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo) (2), Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education (2), University Health Network / University of Toronto (2), University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) — Division of Cardiac Surgery & Lung Transplantation (2), University of Pittsburgh Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery / UPMC (2), Baylor College of Medicine (Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center) (1), Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (1), Cleveland Clinic Florida (Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute) (1), Duke University Hospital (1), EACTS Francis Fontan Fund (hosts: Maastricht University Medical Centre; Gasthuisberg Hospital, KU Leuven; Medical University of Vienna) (1), EACTS Francis Fontan Fund — Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda (1) and 24 more.

Clinical focus within these fellowships

• Transplant & MCS (43)
• Congenital surgery (2)

Counted from programme titles and focus lines. A fellowship can belong to more than one group, and each group page lists every fellowship that names it.

How to choose a programme

• Ask for annual volumes of heart transplants, lung transplants, LVAD implants and ECMO runs, and how many fellows share them.
• Check whether the post includes both transplant and MCS, or only one of them.
• Confirm what you may do independently under the host's credentialing rules, since organ transplantation is tightly regulated.
• Compare the multidisciplinary shock-team role you would have with the surgical role.

Related guides

• Evaluate operative exposure
• Understand licensing and registration
• Check visa and work rights
• Questions to ask before applying

Related subspecialties and topics

• ECMO and ECLS fellowships38 fellowships
• Heart failure and mechanical circulatory support fellowships5 fellowships
• Cardiothoracic critical care and cardiac anaesthesia fellowships15 fellowships
• Adult cardiac surgery fellowships107 fellowships