Northwell is launching first adult pancreas transplant program

The New York State Department of Health has given the green light to Northwell Health to   launch Long Island’s first adult pancreas transplant program.

The Northwell Transplant Institute at North Shore University Hospital (NSUH) were recently visited by DOH officials for a site visit – the final hurdle before the program becomes accessible to patients in New York and southern Connecticut.

The institute is now one of 59 adult transplant centers across the country that provides heart, kidney, liver, lung and pancreas programs under one roof, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. It also provides organ transplant care for children in need of a new heart or kidney.

“Northwell now consistently performs more than 200 kidney transplants a year with excellent outcomes,” Dr.  Nabil Dagher, senior vice president and director of Northwell Transplant Institute, said in a news release about the pancreas transplant program.

“The goal has always been to bring pancreas transplantation to Long Island and marry these similar disciplines,” Dagher said. “We’ve attracted some of the best nephrologists and surgeons in the world, true experts in kidney disease and diabetes. Adding pancreas transplantation to the Northwell Transplant Institute’s already robust programs will further strengthen the care we deliver to all patients.”

The program is launching at a time when 120,000 Americans need an organ transplant, including more than 800 awaiting a pancreas transplant and another roughly 2,500 seeking a combination kidney/pancreas transplant, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

NSUH began performing adult kidney transplants in 2007 and launched a pediatric kidney transplant program at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park in 2017. Dr. Niraj Desai joined Northwell in 2024 to oversee kidney transplantation and lead the launch of the pancreas program. Desai previously served as director of the kidney and pancreas transplant programs at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

“The mission is to bring greater access to people in need, whether that’s through making more organs available for transplantation – which we’ve been working toward – or creating new pathways to receive a life-saving transplant,” Desai said in the news release. “We’ve pushed to expand the age and criteria for organ donation. I’m excited that we can open pancreas transplant to a new, underserved population.”

The pancreas transplant program expands treatment options for patients with advanced diabetes. Often performed in conjunction with a kidney transplant, the procedure can restore the body’s natural ability to regulate blood sugar and reduce or eliminate the need for insulin.

“Kidney transplantation has risen in recent years, driven by greater awareness of its benefits and an increased availability of donated organs,” Dr. Vinay Nair, medical director of Northwell’s Center for Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation, said in the news release.

“Unlike kidney transplantation, pancreas transplantation has remained stagnant, largely due to a lack of public knowledge and an insufficient number of centers offering the procedure,” Nair added. “Our new program seeks to mitigate these challenges by both enhancing awareness and establishing local availability for pancreas transplantation.”