Dr. Kumud Kumar Dhital

Education Qualifications

• 1988-1991: BMBCh: University of Oxford Medical School, UK
• 1986-1988: 1st MB: University of Bristol Medical School, UK
• 1983-1986: PhD: Dept of Anatomy, University College London, University of London, UK

Experience

• Currently, he is the Program and Surgical Director of Heart-Lung Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support at Yashoda Hospitals.
• 2019 - 2020: He was the Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery & Transplantation, the Program Director of Heart & Lung services at the Alfred Hospital and Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Transplantation at Monash University, Melbourne.
• 2009 - 2018: Moved from the UK to Australia, where he was a Consultant Cardiothoracic and Transplant Surgeon at St Vincent Hospital in Sydney for almost 10 years. He remains a Conjoint Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of New South Wales.
• 2005 - 2009 - He was Consultant Cardiothoracic and Transplant Surgeon, and Director of Lung Transplantation at the Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, and Clinical Tutor at the University of Cambridge Medical School.
• 2003 - 2005 - Dr. Dhital was Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, the Director of Cardio-pulmonary Transplantation, and Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre (USA) to establish a heart and lung transplant service at its affiliated overseas unit at the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Therapies (IsMeTT) in Palermo, Italy.
• Having qualified in Medicine from Oxford University, he obtained his Cardiothoracic Surgical training at Guy’s & St Thomas Hospitals in London with Fellowships at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and Transplant Fellowship at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK.
• Extensive experience in basic and translational biomedical research with supervision of Graduate and Higher Degree Students

Services offered

• Heart and Lung Transplant
• Mechanical circulatory support
• Pulmonary Endarterectomy for CTEPH

Special Interest and Expertise

• Cardiac Surgery
• Thoracic Surgery
• Thoracic Transplantation (Heart, Lung, Heart-Lung)
• Mechanical Circulatory Support (ECMO, VAD)
• Pulmonary Endarterectomy (PEA) for Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension (CTEPH)

Professional Membership

• International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation
• The Transplantation Society - Currently Co-Chair of the Heart & Lung Committee
• Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand
• Australian & New Zealand Society of Cardiac & Thoracic Surgeons
• Pulmonary Hypertension Society of Australia & New Zealand
• Honorary Life Member - Society for Heart Failure & Transplantation (SfHFT), India

Research & Publications

• Management after Heart Transplant Gooi J and Dhital K. In: Core Topics in Cardiothoracic Critical Care. Eds.A, Klein., A, Vuylsteke and S, Nashef, Cambridge University Press 2008; pp 406 – 416
• Distant procurement and ex-vivo donor organ preservation for adult heart transplantation of hearts donated after circulatory death: a case series Dhital K, Iyer A, Connellan M, Chew HC, Gao L, Doyle A, Hicks M, Kumarasinghe G, Soto C, Dinale A, Cartwright B, Nair P, Granger E, Jansz P, Jabbour A, Kotlyar E, Keogh A, Hayward C, Graham R, Spratt P, Macdonald P Lancet 2015; 385 (9987): 2585-2591
• Extracorporeal heart perfusion before heart transplantation: The heart in a box. Macdonald PS, Chew HC, Connellan M and Dhital K Curr Opin Organ Transplant 2016; 21(3):336-342
• Donation after circulatory death heart transplantation Dhital, K, Chew H, Macdonald P Curr Opin Organ Transplant 2017;22(3):189-197
• Donor heart procurement from the donation after circulatory death pathway Connellan M and Dhital K Operative Tech Thorac ardiovasc Surg 2017; 2(1):58-67
• Surgical Approaches: Tricks of the Trade Dhital K and Kawanishi Y In: Essentials In Lung Transplantation. 2019 pp 19-37 Ed: Allan Glanville. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-90933-2
• Outcomes of donation after circulatory death heart transplantation in Australia Chew HC, Iyer A, Connellan M, Scheuer S, Villanueva J, Gao L, Hicks M, Harkess M, Soto C, Dinale A, Nair P, Watson A, Granger e, JAnsz P, Muthiah K, Jabbour A, Kotlyar E, Keogh A, Hayward C, Graham R, Spratt P, Macdonald P and Dhital K JACC 2019; 73 (12) 1447-1459
• Cardiac donation after circulatory death Iyer A and Dhital K Current opinion in organ transplantation 2020 25:241-247
• Initial experience with normothermic ex-vivo lung perfusion for donor organ preservation, assessment and reconditioning. Granger E, Dhital K, Glanville A, Jansz P, Spratt P, Heart Lung Circ 2016; 25(8):E92
• Normothermic ex-vivo preservation with the portable Organ Care System Lung device for bilateral lung transplantation (INSPIRE): a randomised, open-label, non-inferiority, phase 3 study. Warnecke G, Van Raemdonck D, Smith MA, Massard G, Kukreja J, Rea F, Loor G, De Robertis F, Nagendran J, Dhital KK, Moradiellos Díez FJ, Knosalla C, Bermudez CA, Tsui S, McCurry K, Wang IW, Deuse T, Lesèche G, Thomas P, Tudorache I, Kühn C, Avsar M, Wiegmann B, Sommer W, Neyrinck A, Schiavon M, Calabrese F, Santelmo N, Olland A, Falcoz PE, Simon AR, Varela A, Madsen JC, Hertz M, Haverich A, Ardehali A, Lancet Respir Med. 2018 May;6(5):357-367.
• Cerebral hypoxia during venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: an In-vitro study. Xie A, Jayewardene ID, Dinale A, Macdonald P, Pye R, Dhital K, J Heart Lung Transplant 2015; 34(4 - Supp): S196.
• Development of a mock extracorporeal membrane oxygenation circuit to assess recirculation. Jayewardene ID, Xie A, Iyer A, Pye R, Dhital K, ASAIO J 2016;62(4):496-7
• The non-ejecting heart on VA ECMO: Strategies for venting the left heart. Curran N, Siriwardena M, Connellan M, Jansz P, Spratt P, Dhital K, Nair P, Granger E, Heart Lung Circ 2017; 26(S3): S393.
• Investigation of watershed areas during femoro-femoral venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) using a mock loop circuit. Cheong C, Xie A, Chee Chew H, Shah M, Shehab S, Macdonald P, Dhital K, J Heart Lung Transplant 2017; 36(4):S384.

Awards and Achievements

• Departmental Scholarship, Dept of Anatomy, University College London, University of London, UK
• Overseas Research Studentship, UK
• Vandervell Foundation Grant, UK
• Francis Dudley Memorial Prize in Anatomy, Bristol University, UK
• Foulkes Foundation Fellowship, UK
• Clinical Tutor of the Year - St Vincent’s Hospital Clinical School, UNSW, Sydney
• Award for Public Service – St Vincent’s Hospital Clinical School, UNSW, Sydney
• Researcher of the Year – St Vincent’s Hospital Clinical School, UNSW, Sydney
• The Terry Connolly Award for Healthcare Leadership & Innovation, Gift of Life Award – DonateLife, Australia

Research Grants & Projects

Principle Investigator

• PI in Australia for The INSPIRE TRIAL - Prospective, International, Multi-centre, Randomized Clinical Investigation of Transmedics Organ Care System (OCS-Lung) for Lung Preservation and Transplantation
• Physiological Ex-Vivo Reconditioning of Extended Criteria Donor Lungs in Clinical Practice: A Prospective, Single-Centre, Non-Randomized Pilot Study. 2012-2016
• Prospective, Single-Centre, Non-Randomised Pilot study - Physiological Ex-Vivo Organ Support for High-Risk Donors in Clinical Heart Transplantation. 2012-2016
• Towards reducing blood product usage in cardiothoracic surgery. 2012-2013
• Targeting the ASIC1a channel as a novel pathway of donor allograft cardioprotection with Hi1a, a disulphide-rich Funnel Web spider venom peptide. 2019-2020
• OrpeusPOD: More hearts for more patients ORPEUS PTY LTD. 2019

Co-Investigator

• A longitudinal investigation of the effects of centrifugal continuous flow ventricular assist devices (LVADs) on hematopoietic parameters. 2011
• Development of a mock ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) circuit to assess recirculation, cerebral perfusion and drug delivery. 2012
• Clinical trial of Cardiowest Total Artificial Heart at St Vincent’s Hospital
• Clinical trial of C-Pulse device for heart failure at St Vincent’s Hospital
• An advanced low cost minimally invasive cardiac assist device Australia-India. 2017

Associate Investigator

• A Singleblinded, Randomized, Controlled, Comparative Phase III Study Evaluating the Safety and Effectiveness of EVARREST™ Fibrin Sealant Patch as an Adjunct to Haemostasis Hemostasis During Cardiovascular Surgery. 2014
• Molecular mechanisms and therapeutic approaches to cardiac development and disease, NHMRC Project Grant. 2015
• A fully implantable self-propelled extra aortic counterpulsation apparatus for translational development for hypertensive heart failure. 2015