The Abdominal Organ Transplant Fellowship is a two-year program, designed as a combined academic, clinical, educational and research experience in kidney and pancreas transplantation.

The program is accredited by the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and accepts one fellow per year.

In the first year, the fellow will be exposed to educational and teaching components and will function with close supervision.

In the second year, the fellow will function semi-independently from a clinical perspective. The fellow's education and responsibilities evolve with experience and clinical exposure during the training period.

Why Train at Wake Forest?

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is the largest kidney and pancreas transplant center in North Carolina. The Abdominal Organ Transplant Program performs approximately 180 transplants annually and is consistently ranked among the top 30 most-active kidney and pancreas transplant programs in the nation. The program is known for its pioneering efforts in transplantation of kidneys from expanded criteria donors and for transplantation of medically and surgically high-risk recipients. 

The fellowship is a blend of critical and primary care, medical and surgical care, pediatric and geriatric care, inpatient and outpatient care and acute and chronic care. The training program immerses the fellow in the full continuum of care from initial referral of the patient to the transplant center to placement on/maintenance of the waiting list to the transplant event to short-term and then long-term medical and surgical care of the transplant patient.

Calendar Year 2023 highlights:

  • 227 *patients received kidney and/or pancreas transplants.
  • 183 deceased donor kidney transplants (including 5 pediatric en bloc and 3 dual kidney transplants), 36 living donor kidney transplants (23 living nonrelated, 13 living related donors), 7 simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplants and one heart-kidney transplant.
  • In the 53-year history of the program, 4600 kidney and 352 pancreas transplants have been performed.

Education and Fellowship Goals

At the completion of the program, the fellow should be able to function independently from an academic and clinical standpoint through the continuum of pre-, peri- and post-transplant patient care from medical, surgical, critical and long-term care perspectives and in the fields of:

  • Kidney and pancreas transplantation
  • Immunosuppression
  • Transplant immunobiology and histocompatibility
  • Organ preservation and procurement
  • Donor management and assessment
  • Dialysis access

Core Competencies

  • Patient care
  • Medical knowledge
  • Practice-based learning and improvement
  • Interpersonal and communication skills
  • Professionalism
  • Systems-based practice