Heart Transplant Care Gets Boost as EPIC Joins MGM Healthcare
EPIC, MGM Healthcare Join Hands to Expand Heart Transplant and LVAD Care in Gujarat
Patients with advanced heart failure in Gujarat could soon have greater access to specialist transplant and mechanical heart support as EPIC Multispecialty Hospital in Ahmedabad has entered into a clinical partnership with Chennai-based MGM Healthcare.
Under the arrangement, heart-transplant specialists from MGM Healthcare will work with the EPIC team and be available at the Ahmedabad hospital for transplant surgeries. The two institutions will also work together on Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) implantation for eligible patients.
EPIC, a 280-bed multispecialty hospital in Ahmedabad, already has an approved heart-transplant programme and has carried out heart-transplant surgeries. The new arrangement brings the transplant team from MGM Healthcare into that programme, with the stated aim of adding specialist support for complex transplant and advanced heart-failure cases.
The agreement comes at a time when the number of heart transplants being carried out in Gujarat has increased. Figures attributed to the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) show that Gujarat recorded 13 heart transplants in 2021, followed by 20 in 2022, 29 in 2023, 33 in 2024 and 36 in 2025.
Across India, the corresponding numbers were 153 in 2021, 243 in 2022, 221 in 2023, 253 in 2024 and 239 in 2025. Based on these figures, Gujarat’s share of the country’s heart transplants increased from 8.50 per cent in 2021 to 15.06 per cent in 2025.
Between 2023 and 2025, Gujarat recorded 98 heart transplants out of 713 performed across India, giving the state a 13.74 per cent share during the three years.
The figures also show why specialist heart-failure services are becoming more important in the state. Heart transplantation is reserved for people with severe heart failure whose condition remains poor despite other forms of treatment. The supply of donor hearts is limited, so patients may have to remain under medical care while they wait for a suitable organ.
This is where mechanical circulatory support can become an option for some patients.
An LVAD is a mechanical pump that helps the left side of the heart move blood into the body’s main artery. It does not replace the heart. Instead, it supports the failing left ventricle when the heart can no longer pump enough blood on its own.
For some patients waiting for a transplant, an LVAD can be used as a bridge to transplant. It can keep blood circulation going while doctors assess the patient or while the patient waits for a suitable donor heart. In other cases, mechanical support may be considered for patients who cannot undergo transplantation.
MGM Healthcare has an established heart and lung transplant and mechanical circulatory support programme in Chennai. The hospital says its team has worked in advanced heart-failure treatment, heart transplantation, lung transplantation and ventricular assist devices for more than 30 years.
Dr K. R. Balakrishnan, Chairman, Cardiac Sciences and Director, Institute of Heart & Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support, MGM Healthcare, is part of the team that will work with EPIC. He has more than three decades of experience in advanced heart-failure management, transplantation and mechanical circulatory support.
MGM Healthcare records several milestones involving Balakrishnan and his team. These include the use of ECMO as a bridge to heart transplantation in 2012, India’s first successful HVAD implant and the country’s first paediatric heart transplant. In June 2024, MGM Healthcare also reported that its team had completed four heart transplants and one bilateral lung transplant within 30 hours.
The hospital’s transplant programme includes cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, cardiac anaesthesiologists, critical-care specialists and rehabilitation staff. Such a team is needed because transplant patients require care before surgery, during the operation and for the rest of their lives after receiving a donor organ.
Heart transplantation itself is only one part of the treatment. Patients need medicines that suppress the immune system so that the body does not reject the transplanted heart. They also need regular tests and long-term medical follow-up.
For Gujarat, keeping more advanced treatment options available within the state could reduce the need for some patients and families to travel to other parts of India for specialist care. The partnership is also expected to serve patients from neighbouring states, according to the two hospitals.
Dr Anil Jain, Founder Director, EPIC Multispecialty Hospital, said, “EPIC has an established heart-transplant programme, and this partnership will strengthen the specialist expertise available to our patients. Having MGM Healthcare’s transplant specialists at EPIC will add further depth to the clinical management of complex transplant cases. The two institutions will also work together on LVAD implantation, providing an important treatment option for eligible patients with advanced heart failure.
Dr. Jain said that “Epic Multispecialty Hospital performs more than 2,500 cardiac surgeries every year, and this number is expected to increase significantly in the coming years, which is not a good sign for the youngsters of India. The hospital is a preferred and referred centre for heart surgery for patients from several states across the country.”
He added that “Epic Multispecialty Hospital has 8 to 10 highly specialised cardiac surgeons, along with a similar number of experienced anesthesiologists, who work together to provide advanced treatment and help patients recover from complex heart conditions and complications.”
Dr K. R. Balakrishnan said, “Patients with advanced and end-stage heart failure may require different forms of advanced therapy depending on their clinical condition, including heart transplantation or mechanical circulatory support. The clinical decision-making involves careful assessment, optimisation and multidisciplinary management. Through this partnership, our specialists will work with the EPIC team on heart-transplant procedures as well as LVAD implantation for eligible patients. This will bring our experience in advanced heart-failure and transplant care to patients from Gujarat and neighbouring states at EPIC.” Dr. Balakrishnan said, “MGM Healthcare is developing an indigenous device which will help to cure the patients and will reduce the dependency on heart transplantation. The device is under trial and is most likely to be available by the end of next year.
Both doctors said that prominent reasons for the increase in the number of heart patients are pollution, junk food, sedentary lifestyle, and emotional and work-related stress.
The wider growth in transplantation also depends on organ donation and the systems that identify donors, obtain consent, retrieve organs and match them with suitable recipients. Government data show that Gujarat has become an active state in organ transplantation. NOTTO’s 2024 data, for example, recorded 33 heart transplants in Gujarat, along with 1,018 kidney and 210 liver transplants.
The rise in heart transplants does not remove the shortage of donor organs. A patient can be medically suitable for a transplant and still have to wait for an appropriate heart. Blood group, body size, medical urgency and donor availability can affect the matching process.
For patients with advanced heart failure, the choice between continued medical treatment, mechanical support and transplantation is therefore made case by case. The new EPIC-MGM arrangement adds another specialist team to that decision-making process in Ahmedabad, while giving eligible patients access to LVAD implantation and transplant surgery through the same clinical partnership.
