Cleveland Clinic Florida Launches Heart Transplant Program

Cleveland Clinic Florida has hired Cedric Sheffield, MD, the former Director and CEO of the Tampa (FL) Transplant Institute, to head its new adult heart transplantation program. He joins Andrew Boyle, MD, Medical Director of the Heart Failure, Heart Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support Program.

Cleveland Clinic Florida received United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) approval to begin a heart transplant program—the organization’s third organ transplant program—in June. The medical center received UNOS approval to perform adult liver and kidney transplants in 2013 and completed more than 52 transplants to date.

“We have recruited an outstanding team of transplant professionals. These caregivers are filling a critical need and providing patients, who might otherwise leave South Florida, with highly specialized healthcare services,” says Andreas Tzakis, MD, PhD, Director of Cleveland Clinic Florida’s Transplant Center.

Dr. Sheffield completed his fellowship in thoracic surgery and transplantation at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio in 1999, and remained as a member of the associate staff until 2001. From September 2001 to July 2006, he served as a cardiothoracic transplant surgeon at LifeLink HealthCare Institute in Tampa, a position he held until July 2006. From 2002 until his appointment at Cleveland Clinic Florida, he held various positions at Tampa General Hospital, including Director of Heart Transplantation, Surgical Director of Lung Transplantation, Deputy Chief of Cardiac Surgery, Chief of Cardiac Surgery and Director and CEO of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Transplantation.

Cleveland Clinic Florida

Cleveland Clinic Florida, located in Weston, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Parkland, is a not-for-profit, multispecialty, academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Cleveland Clinic Florida has 240 physicians with expertise in 35 specialties. The medical campus is fully integrated and includes diagnostic centers, outpatient surgery and a 24-hour emergency department located in the state-of-the-art hospital.

Cleveland Clinic Florida ranked third among the 68 best hospitals in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area in US News & World Report’s 2014-2015 ranking of Best Hospitals metro area rankings.

Cleveland Clinic Florida is an integral part of Cleveland Clinic Ohio, whose transplant specialists are working closely with their colleagues in Florida to implement their model of success for high-quality transplant services.