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Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology

One of the nation's highest-volume transplant and mechanical circulatory support programs, training fellows at the full spectrum of end-stage heart disease — from cardiogenic shock to durable LVAD to multi-organ transplantation.

Program Snapshot

  • 1-year ACGME-accredited fellowship, 2 positions/year
  • 5 individualized career tracks
  • Faculty recognized nationally & internationally in their fields
  • Transplant volume in the top quartile nationally
  • ELSO Gold VA-ECMO Program
2026 Transplant and LVAD Team members

A program built on volume, breadth, and outcomes

For nearly 30 years, UT Southwestern's Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology program has trained fellows in the care of complex cardiovascular disease across a broad range of specialty programs and advanced therapies.

Program highlights include:

  • Training in cardiac sarcoidosis, amyloidosis, neuromuscular and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies, adult congenital heart disease, pulmonary hypertension, HFpEF, and cardio-oncology
  • Dedicated advanced heart failure experience at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas County's safety-net hospital
  • Comprehensive exposure to mechanical circulatory support, including durable LVAD therapy and innovative sternal-sparing non-sternotomy LVAD implantation
  • Advanced procedural training in invasive hemodynamics, LVAD RAMP studies, Level III cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and endomyocardial biopsy
  • Rotations in a dedicated cardiac ICU and participation in an ELSO Gold-certified VA-ECMO program
  • Experience at a large-volume pulmonary hypertension referral center and a high-volume structural heart program
  • Exposure to complex transplant populations, including multi-organ transplant recipients and adults with congenital heart disease

Fellows train alongside nationally and internationally recognized faculty who lead clinical trials, develop practice guidelines, and advance standards of care in heart failure, transplantation, pulmonary hypertension, and mechanical circulatory support.

By the Numbers

112

Heart Transplants
Two Year Total for 2024 and 2025

58

Durable LVAD Implants
Two Year Total for 2024 and 2025

153

Temporary MCS/ECMo Runs
Two Year Total for 2024 and 2025

18

Multi-organ Transplants
Two Year Total for 2024 and 2025

7,500+

Advanced Heart Failure Clinic Visits

1,000+

Transplants since Program Inception in 1988

At a Glance

  • UT Southwestern Heart Failure & Transplant Program Facts
    • One of 15 U.S. programs to reach 1,000+ transplants in each of four major organs: heart, lung, liver & kidney
    • Among the nation’s highest-volume heart transplantation centers for adult congenital heart disease
    • 9 faculty serving in professional society committees & leadership roles
    • World Association of Sarcoidosis and Other Granulomatous Disorders (WASOG) Center of Excellence for cardiac sarcoidosis
    • Cardiac amyloidosis-dedicated program established by Justin Grodin, M.D.
    • One of a small number of U.S. programs performing sternal-sparing (non-sternotomy) LVAD implantations

Five Career Tracks

Traditional

Balanced training across advanced HF, MCS, transplant, and critical care.

Outpatient

Durable LVAD and ambulatory transplant medicine with expanded outpatient HF focus.

Heart Failure

For careers focused on HF and cardiogenic shock outside transplant centers.

Critical Care

Deepened experience in the Cardiac ICU managing the most critically ill patients.

Elective

A personalized pathway approved by the Program Director.

Discover Our Experience

  • Application Process

    Incoming fellows are required to have successfully completed an ACGME-accredited Cardiovascular Disease fellowship prior to the start of their Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology fellowship. In addition, incoming fellows must have a valid license or training permit from the Texas Medical Board, as well as current BLS and ACLS certifications.

    Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology fellowship programs across the country, including UT Southwestern Medical Center, are now utilizing the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) to streamline the application process. In order to apply for a position, please submit a completed application through ERAS. Your application should include the following:

    • An updated Curriculum Vitae (CV)
    • A personal statement
    • A USMLE score report including scores for Steps 1, 2CK, and 3
    • At least three (3) – but no more than four (4) – letters of recommendation (LORs). LORs should be from faculty who can comment on your clinical, procedure, and interpersonal skills.
      • We require that one of your LORs be from your Cardiovascular Diseases Fellowship Program Director.

    We strongly encourage interested applicants to submit their applications as early as possible as we offer interviews on a rolling basis. We regret that we are unable to accept applications received outside of ERAS.

    Per UT Southwestern policy, we are only able to accept incoming trainees who are United States citizens, permanent residents, or have J-1 ECFMG certified visas. We are unable to offer H1-B visas or any other type of visa.

    Interviews

    The Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology fellowship conducts interviews in September.

  • Curriculum & Conferences

    Clinical Rotations

    • Inpatient LVAD Service
    • Inpatient Transplant Service
    • Advanced HF, Transplant & VAD Consult Service
    • Advanced HF Clinic at Parkland Memorial Hospital
    • Transplant, LVAD & Advanced HF Outpatient Clinics
    • Cardiac Catheterization Lab

    Weekly Conferences

    • Division Grand Rounds
    • Advanced Heart Failure, Transplant & MCS Didactic Conference
    • Case Presentations
    • Transplant / LVAD Selection Committee
    • Transplant Clinic Patient Review

    Monthly

    • Morbidity & Mortality (M&M) Conference
    • Journal Club
    • ACHD Complex Patient Review
    • Complex Immunology Conference Review
    • LVAD Programmatic Discussion

    Multidisciplinary Didactic Series

    • Advanced Heart Failure
    • Mechanical Circulatory Support, with hands-on device training
    • Transplant Immunology
    • Transplant Infectious Disease
    • Transplant Psychiatry / Psychology
    • LVAD Management & Complications

    Procedural & Skills Training

    • Invasive hemodynamics
    • Invasive RAMP studies for LVAD optimization
    • Level III CPET with direct Fick
    • Endomyocardial biopsy
    • Hands-on Impella, ECMO & LVAD training
  • Clinical Trials & Investigator Involvement

    Fellows train alongside faculty who are active in multicenter device and drug trials, national registries, and investigator-initiated research.

    ACTIVE ENROLLING TRIALS

    INNOVATE Trial — BrioVAD™ System

    A prospective, randomized, multicenter trial evaluating the investigational BrioVAD left ventricular assist system against the HeartMate 3 for short- and long-term mechanical circulatory support in advanced, refractory heart failure. UT Southwestern is an enrolling site.

    COMET-HF

    A Multi-Center, Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial to Assess Efficacy and Safety of Omecamtiv Mecarbil in Patients With Symptomatic Heart Failure With Severely Reduced Ejection Fraction

    Active Research Across every Domain of Advanced Heart Failure

    DomainRepresentative Study/Program
    Advanced HFrEF therapeutics COMET-HF / Omecamtiv Mecarbil
    Amyloidosis Identifying Subclinical Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis in asymptomatic carriers of the V122I TTR Allele
    UT Southwestern Cardiomyopathy BioBank
    Determining the association of TTR stabilizing therapy with circulating TTR amyloid aggregates over time in patients with ATTR-CM; Longitudinal Biomarker Study
    Iodine-124 Evuzamitide PET/CT Imaging in Carriers of TTR Mutations (EPIC-TTR)
    Durable mechanical circulatory support innovation BrioVAD / INNOVATE Trial
    Donor-heart preservation & expanded organ utilization XVIVO Heart Box / Normothermic Ischemia-Free Heart Preservation (NIHP)
    Heart Transplant Multiomic Profiling in Patients with Advanced Heart Failure: The UT Southwestern Advanced HeartFailure Biorepository
    Cardiac Metabolic Profiling in Heart Transplant Recipients Using Hyperpolarized MRI
    Pulmonary hypertension in advanced HF & transplant evaluation PH referral-center research, invasive hemodynamics, transplant risk stratification
    Specialized transplant populations HIV-positive donor heart transplantation
    Temporary MCS / ECMO quality & outcomes VA-ECMO Program, ELSO Platinum Certification

    Registries & Collaboratives

    • Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure (GWTG-HF) Registry
    • AHA Cardiogenic Shock Registry
    • Cardiogenic Shock Working Group
  • Faculty Influence

    Leadership Roles

    • Faris Araj, M.D. – Multidisciplinary Heart Valve Team
    • Mark Drazner, M.D. – Vice Chair, Clinical Affairs
    • Justin Grodin, M.D., M.P.H. – Interim Section Head, Medical Director Cardiac Amyloidosis
    • E. Ashley Hardin, M.D. – Program Director, AHFTC, Medical Director Cardiac Sarcoidosis Clinic, and Medical Director Inpatient APPs
    • Anas Jawaid, M.D. – Associate Medical Director of Heart Failure, Parkland Memorial Hospital
    • Nicholas Hendren, M.D. – Medical Director of Heart Failure, Parkland Memorial Hospital
    • Natalie Tapaskar, M.D. – Medical Director HCM
    • Jennifer Thibodeau, M.D. – Medical Director HF/ECMO, Associate Director of Clinical Operations
    • Lauren Truby, M.D. – Medical Director, Heart Transplant and LVAD
    • Natalie Tapaskar, M.D. – Medical Director HCM
    • Christopher Wrobel, M.D. – Associate Medical Director, Heart Transplant

    Committees 

    • Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA),
      • Mark Drazner, M.D. – Past president, board of directors
      • E. Ashley Hardin, M.D. – incoming chair of the Women in HF Committee
      • Jennifer Thibodeau, M.D. – Chair of the annual scientific meeting (ASM) committee
    • International Society of Heart and Lung Transplant (ISHLT);
      • Lauren Truby, M.D – Member of the PGD international consortium
    • American Heart Association
    • American College of Cardiology
    • American Society of Transplantation

    Guideline Writing Committees

    • Mark Drazer, M.D.
    • E. Ashley Hardin, M.D.
    • Jennifer Thibodeau, M.D.
  • Prominent Publications

    Faris Araj, M.D.

    Mark H. Drazner, M.D.

    Justin Grodin, M.D., M.P.H.

    • Fontana M, Berk JL, Gillmore JD, Grodin JL, et al. Acoramidis in Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy (ATTRibute-CM), NEJM 2024
    • Grodin JL, Maurer MS. The Truth Is Unfolding About Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis. Circulation. 2019 Jul 2;140(1):27-30. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.041015. Epub 2019 Jul 1. PMID: 31549879; PMCID: PMC6761830.

    Elizabeth Ashley Hardin, M.D.

    Anas Jawaid, M.D.

    Nicholas Hendren, M.D.

    Natalie Tapaskar, M.D.

    Jennifer Thibodeau, M.D., M.Sc.

    Lauren Truby, M.D.

    Christopher Wrobel, M.D.

     

Faculty Team

Faris Araj, M.D.

  • Cardiac Assist Devices
  • Cardiac Function
  • Heart-Kidney Transplants

Mark Drazner, M.D.

  • Advanced Heart Failure
  • Heart Transplant
  • Left ventricular Hypertrophy

Justin Grodin, M.D., M.P.H.

  • Amyloidosis
  • Advanced Heart Failure
  • Cardiac Transplantation and Ventricular Assist Devices

E. Ashley Hardin, M.D.

  • Cardiac Sarcoidosis
  • Pulmonary Hypertension in Advanced Heart Failure

Nicholas Hendren, M.D.

  • Advanced Heart Failure
  • Heart Transplant
  • Myocarditis

Anas Jawaid, M.D.

  • Advanced Heart Failure
  • Heart Transplant
  • Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADs)

Natalie Tapaskar, M.D.

  • Advanced Heart Failure
  • Heart Transplant
  • Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Jennifer Thibodeau, M.D.

  • Advanced Heart Failure
  • Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)
  • Heart Transplant

Lauren Truby, M.D.

  • Advanced Heart Failure
  • Heart Transplant
  • General Cardiology

Christopher Wrobel, M.D.

  • Heart Transplant
  • Mechanical Circulatory Support
  • Advanced Heart Failure

Contact Us

Division of Cardiology

UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75390-9047

Phone: 214-645-2062
Fax: 214-648-2480
william.brown@utsouthwestern.edu

E. Ashley Hardin, M.D.

Program Director

Natalie Tapaskar, M.D.

Associate Program Director

William Brown, B.S.B.A.

GME Program Coordinator II

Email William Brown

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