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Heart surgeon Rajamiyer Venkateswaran receives lifetime award
The award recognized his contributions to transplant surgery and donor organ research.
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Malvika Choudhary - Wed, 01, Apr 2026
- 17:07 EDT
- 15
Rajamiyer Venkateswaran receiving the award / uab.edu
India-born cardiothoracic surgeon Rajamiyer Venkateswaran received the Lifetime International Fellowship Award from the Indian Association of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgeons (IACTS) at the association’s 72nd annual conference in Mumbai, India.
The award recognizes international surgeons who have made sustained contributions to the advancement of cardiothoracic surgery through training, mentorship, and clinical innovation.
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Venkateswaran is a professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and chief of heart, mechanical circulatory support, and lung transplant. He was honored for his role in developing heart and lung transplantation and mechanical circulatory support programs internationally.
His research has focused on donor organ management and transplantation. From 2003 to 2006, he led what UAB described as the largest prospective randomized clinical trial on heart and lung donors, a study that helped change procurement protocols across the United Kingdom and increased the national rate of heart donations procured from 20 percent to more than 30 percent.
Venkateswaran was also the fourth surgeon in the world to transplant a heart from a donation after circulatory death using an organ care system that restores the heart to a functioning state outside the body through normothermic machine perfusion.
The technique has since helped expand the donor pool and created additional options for patients on transplant waiting lists.
“This award speaks to the global reach of Dr. Venkat's career. The fact that his peers across the world recognize his contributions tells you everything you need to know about the caliber of surgeon he is. We are proud to have him on our faculty,” said James Davies, director of the UAB Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and holder of the John W. Kirklin Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery.
Venkateswaran joined UAB in February 2025 after nearly 28 years of surgical practice in the United Kingdom.Before joining UAB, he served as clinical director for cardiac surgery and transplantation at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Wythenshawe Hospital, where he managed two cardiac surgery units.
He also served as director of heart and lung transplantation, overseeing a program that performed 50 to 60 transplants annually.
Venkateswaran has also been involved in advancing heart failure treatment, transplantation, and left ventricular assist device implantation in India and Taiwan.
The IACTS annual conference, held Feb. 26-March 1, 2026, at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai, brought together cardiothoracic surgeons from around the world to share research, surgical techniques, and advances in the field. Organizers said this year’s meeting drew close to 2,000 attendees.
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