Thomas E. Starzl Selected for Prestigious National Award

Issue Date:

March 23, 2009

Thomas E. Starzl

University of Pittsburgh transplant pioneer Thomas E. Starzl, known as the father of transplantation, has been selected by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. to receive a Physician of the Year Award for Lifetime Achievement. The prestigious award honors a select group of physicians who have made notable contributions to the field of medicine. Honorees are selected from more than 600,000 physicians currently practicing medicine in the United States. An award ceremony will be held in New York City on March 23.

Starzl is a Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and director emeritus of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). He achieved international acclaim by laying the groundwork for the transplantation field of medicine. Today, the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute remains the world leader in transplantation experience, with more than 10,000 patients treated to date.

“I am deeply honored to receive this award, not as an individual, but rather as a representative of the outstanding transplantation team,” said Starzl. “From the beginning, our team included all components of the University of Pittsburgh, from the schools of the health sciences to the consortium of affiliated UPMC hospitals. I’m proud to have been a part of this team, which has worked tirelessly to advance the field of organ transplantation and provide hope to countless patients who otherwise had none.”

Retired from clinical and surgical service since 1991, Starzl still remains active in research, mapping the relationship between donor and recipient cells and developing new therapeutic strategies to achieve immune tolerance after transplantation.

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. is a national health care research and information company established in 1991 by a former medical college board chair and president. The company publishes the annual guide America’s Top Doctors.