Elizabeth Blume, MD
Dr. Blume’s specialties include cardiomyopathy, pediatric heart failure and heart transplantation. Her research is focused on the treatment of end-stage heart disease and heart transplantation in pediatric patients.
Debra Boyer, MD
Meet Debra Boyer, MD, associate medical director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Lung Transplant Program. Boyer and the lung transplant team are part of Pediatric Transplant Center patients’ journeys though every step of the process, from early education through surgey and beyond. “When you see these kids coming out of the surgery and going home, that’s really exciting,” says Boyer.
Scott A. Elisofon, MD
Meet Scott Elisofon, MD, medical director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Liver Transplant Program. Elisofon works with patients to find out what type of liver disease they have, how it can be fixed and if they require a transplant or just medical care. He then organizes the entire Pediatric Transplant Center team to figure out how to best care for that patient. “I get great satisfaction seeing the recovery of a patient, when they walk out of the hospital with a smile on their face,” he says. “That’s instant gratification for me.”
Rima Fawaz, MD
Meet Rima Fawaz, MD, medical director of the Boston Children’s Intestinal and Multivisceral Transplant Program. Multivisceral transplant is typically when a transplant of three organs is needed. Fawaz takes great pride in the Pediatric Transplant Center’s focus on avoiding the need for transplant through medical management. “What makes Boston Children’s unique is that we have very strong teams that work together,” she says. “It enables us to manage these patients differently.”
Nancy Rodig, MD
Meet Dr. Nancy Rodig, MD, medical director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Kidney Transplant Program. Together, Dr. Rodig and the Pediatric Transplant Center team bring pediatric expertise to the diagnosis and treatment of every child with chronic kidney disease from medical management to optimizing care to providing support for the child and his or her family.
Khashayar Vakili, MD
Meet Khashayar Vakili, MD, Pediatric Transplant Center surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital. In the clinical world, Dr. Vakili specializes in liver, kidney, intestinal and multivisceral transplant surgeries, while in the lab he is studying liver tumors, their biology and how to treat them.
Christina VanderPluym, MD
At Boston Children’s Hospital, we believe that every child is unique and, as such, requires a comprehensive approach to advanced cardiac support tailored to his or her size and anatomy. That is why we are working so hard to expand the number and types of VADs available for use in children.