Redefining the future of transplant medicine at VCU Health

How nationally ranked Hume-Lee Transplant Center is giving more patients a second chance through innovation.

RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovation isn't a buzzword at VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center — it's the lifeblood of this nationally ranked program – one that gives more patients a second chance at life.

"Our goal is not to follow what's next, but to create it," said David Bruno, M.D., FACS, director of Hume-Lee. "The future of medicine is not about one specialty or one surgeon," he said. "It's about building a multidisciplinary team focused on curing diseases."

Already known as one of the nation's top 10 liver transplant programs, Hume-Lee Transplant Center captured global attention after performing the world's first living-donor liver retrieval and the first fully robotic living-donor liver transplant in the United States — groundbreaking procedures that redefine what's possible for transplant patients and donors.

Leading Where Others Stop

Under the leadership of Bruno and CEO of VCU Health System, Marlon Levy, M.D., MBA, Hume-Lee has become a destination for patients once told "no" elsewhere. From robotic-assisted surgery and living-donor programs to transplanting organs once considered unusable, Hume-Lee's clinicians are rewriting what it means to save a life.

"We aren't afraid to be the first or push the envelope, especially when it means better outcomes for our patients," said Levy, who launched the center's transformative programs before becoming CEO.

Innovation Saving Lives — and Expanding Access

• Groundbreaking research allows Hume-Lee to successfully perform transplants from donors who had both HIV and hepatitis C into recipients living with HIV, but without transferring hepatitis C. 
• Pancreatectomy with islet cell autotransplantation  (or TP-IAT) for chronic pancreatitis offers one of the nation's only treatment options for patients in severe pain.
• Robotic surgery is reducing recovery time and pain for living liver donors and liver recipients alike.
• A new lung transplant program—one of only three in Virginia—is already changing lives for patients with end-stage lung disease.

A National Model for Multidisciplinary Medicine

With over 550 organ transplantations expected in 2025, Hume-Lee's growth reflects its purpose: to give every patient — even high-risk, complex cases — a second chance.

"This isn't just a place," said Bruno. "Hume-Lee is all of us, working together to give patients another chance at life."

SOURCE for transplant volume data: Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network (OPTN) National data - OPTN. 

About VCU and VCU Health

Virginia Commonwealth University is a major, urban public research university with national and international rankings in sponsored research. Located in downtown Richmond, VCU enrolls more than 28,000 students in more than 200 degree and certificate programs in the arts, sciences and humanities across VCU's 12 schools and three colleges. The VCU Health brand represents the VCU health sciences academic programs, the VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center and the VCU Health System, which comprises VCU Medical Center (the only academic medical center in the region), Community Memorial Hospital, Tappahannock Hospital, Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU, and MCV Physicians. The clinical enterprise includes a collaboration with Sheltering Arms Institute for physical rehabilitation services. For more, please visit vcu.edu and vcuhealth.org.

CONTACT: Caroline Ward 
VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center Public Relations 
Phone: 804-628-8578
Email: [email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/redefining-the-future-of-transplant-medicine-at-vcu-health-302596895.html