Mayo Announces Physician Leaders for Heart Transplant Program

Thursday, May 12, 2005

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. _- Two preeminent cardiac specialists will join Mayo Clinic in Arizona to lead the organization's new Heart Transplant Program and to prepare for Mayo's first heart transplant, expected to occur sometime in late fall or early winter 2005. Joining Mayo Clinic on June 1, 2005, as Surgical Director, Heart Transplant Program, will be Francisco A. Arabia, M.D., a nationally recognized specialist in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery. Until April, Dr. Arabia was Physician Leader, Heart Program, at University Medical Center (UMC) in Tucson, as well as Surgical Director, Lung Transplant Program.

Named Medical Director for Congestive Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation is Robert L. Scott, M.D., Ph.D., who currently is Medical Director, Heart Transplantation; Director of Heart Failure Services and Medical Director, Coronary Care Unit, at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans. He is expected to join Mayo sometime in July. Dr. Scott is recognized for his expertise in congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, heart transplantation and ventricular assisted devices.

Mayo Clinic announced in September 2004 that it would expand its existing cardiovascular and solid organ transplant services to include heart transplantation and other advanced treatments for heart failure and heart disease. Mayo's new heart transplant program will be the only program in the Phoenix area.

Dr. Arabia is distinguished in his profession in cardiothoracic and lung transplant surgery. Before joining UMC in 1997, Dr. Arabia completed residencies in general surgery at Tulane University Affiliated Hospitals in New Orleans.

Dr. Scott has been on staff at Ochsner since 1998 and previously completed cardiology fellowships in heart failure and transplant at Cleveland Clinic and in cardiology at St. Louis University Hospital. Both Dr. Arabia and Dr. Scott were offered their positions following a comprehensive national search for a heart transplant surgeon and medical director. Several outstanding candidates from leading medical centers in the U.S. were brought on site for interviews.

The Heart Transplant Program at Mayo Clinic in Arizona will benefit from the infrastructure already in place in the solid organ transplant program and will provide the full spectrum of cardiac care, including heart failure surgery, ventricular assist device implants and rehabilitation services.

Currently Mayo performs kidney, liver and pancreas transplantation. As of May 1, 2005, Mayo had performed more than 640 solid organ transplants. As a three-site organization (Arizona, Florida and Minnesota), Mayo Clinic is the largest provider of solid organ transplants in the U.S.

Mayo Clinic is a private group practice of medicine dedicated to providing diagnosis and treatment of patient illnesses through a systematic focus on individual patient needs. As a leading academic medical center in the Southwest, Mayo Clinic focuses on providing specialty and surgical care in more than 65 disciplines at its outpatient facility in north Scottsdale and at Mayo Clinic Hospital. The 208-licensed bed hospital is located at 56th Street and Mayo Boulevard (north of Bell Road) in northeast Phoenix, and provides inpatient care to support the medical and surgical specialties of the clinic, which is located at 134th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.

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