UnityPoint Health - Des Moines has named Qasim L. Chaudhry, general and transplant surgeon, as Medical Director for The Transplant Center at Iowa Methodist Medical Center.
Dr. Chaudhry is a general surgeon with The Iowa Clinic, P.C. In his new role for UnityPoint Health - Des Moines, he will provide guidance, leadership, oversight and quality assurance for Iowa Methodist's kidney transplant program.
'The Transplant Center at Iowa Methodist strives to provide complete care for those with renal failure," said Dr. Chaudhry. "This involves not only education about the transplant process and performing the transplant surgery, but also providing the full range of general and vascular surgery services needed for a patient to stay on dialysis and remain eligible for a kidney transplant."
"We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Chaudhry to our transplant team," said Steve Stephenson, M.D., Chief Operating Officer for Iowa Methodist. "His extensive training in organ transplantation will help transform the lives of our transplant patients and their families."
Dr. Chaudhry began his Des Moines surgery practice earlier this year. He received his medical education at Trinity College/Cambridge University and received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of London. He completed his residency in general surgery at the State University of New York at Buffalo and his fellowship in abdominal transplant surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE.
Dr. Chaudhry performs complex hepatopancreaticobiliary surgery and is an integral part of the multidisciplinary team at Iowa Methodist who care for patients with diseases of the liver, pancreas and bile ducts. He is board-certified by the American Board of Surgery and a member of American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the American Board of Surgery. He is the author of peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Medical Virology and the American Journal of Transplantation, and addressed the World Transplant Congress in 2006 in Boston, MA.
For the past decade, Iowa Methodist's Transplant Center has performed adult and pediatric kidney transplants with a dedicated team of surgeons, nephrologists and support staff. Over the past 23 years, there have been a total of 404 kidney transplants at the Center; 264 of these were from deceased donors and 140 from living donors. The Iowa Methodist Transplant Center was the first in Iowa to perform a laparoscopic nephrectomy (the minimally-invasive removal of an entire kidney) for a kidney donation from a living donor, and was also the first in the state to do a paired kidney exchange (the coordinated exchange of two live kidney donations at the same time to two recipients, providing a suitable match for each patient).
The Transplant Center's services include community education and a variety of technical and informational support services for patients and families. The Center receives referrals for transplant evaluation from nephrologists, hospital dialysis units and patient self-referral.
Other general and transplant surgeons in practice at The Transplant Center are Cass Franklin, M.D. and Johan Aerts, D.O., both with Mercy Medical Center, Des Moines. Craig Shadur, M.D., Iowa Kidney Physicians, P.C., also serves as Medical Director for non-surgical care. Nearby transplant centers also serve as backup referral centers, assuring uninterrupted care for Iowa Methodist transplant patients.