Experts from around the world have gathered at the University of Birmingham to celebrate 30 years of research and 5,000 liver transplants to have been performed in the city.
Internationally renowned pioneers of liver transplantation and experts in liver disease were at the two-day International Liver Symposium held at the University’s College of Medical and Dental Sciences on September 5th and 6th.
Birmingham has one of the largest liver transplant programmes in Europe. This year saw the 5,000th liver transplant being performed across Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, part of Birmingham Health Partners, a strategic alliance between the University of Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. 2017 also marks the 30th anniversary of the Centre for Liver Research at the University of Birmingham.
Professor David Adams, Head of the College of Medical and Dental Sciences at the University of Birmingham and Director of Birmingham Health Partners, said: “In the early 1980s attempts to launch a pioneering liver transplant programme in Birmingham were met with hostility and disbelief - liver transplants had only been performed in a few centres throughout the world and results were poor with fewer than one in three patients living beyond a year.
“The vision, courage and skill of the early pioneers working as a multi-disciplinary team overcame the challenges and established Birmingham as a world-leading site for liver transplantation. Move forward 35 years and the Birmingham programme has grown from strength to strength, contributing through innovation and science to the current successful outcomes in liver transplantation.
“Birmingham now has one of the largest liver transplant programmes in Europe performing in excess of 250 adult and paediatric transplants per year.
“We are delighted to celebrate these clinical and academic achievements in a scientific conference at the University of Birmingham.”
For more information contact Emma McKinney, Communications Manager (Health Sciences), University of Birmingham, tel: +44 (0) 121 414 6681. For out of hours enquiries contact the press office on +44 (0) 7789 921 165.
- The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 5,000 international students from over 150 countries.
- Birmingham Health Partners, a strategic alliance that seeks to accelerate access to drugs, devices and diagnostics to deliver better treatments and care to patient the region.