UAB Department of Surgery Assistant Professor Robert Cannon, M.D., has been named director of the Liver Transplant Program, and Assistant Professor Babak Orandi, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., has been named director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program.

UAB’s Liver Transplantation Program began in 1983, and it maintains robust clinical and basic science research efforts. The three-year patient survival rate of 87 percent at UAB is much higher than the national average of 77.5 percent. UAB is the only transplant center within the Alabama organ center Legacy of Hope, which boasts a donation rate of 30 per million-population and a conversion rate of 81 percent, both of which are much higher than reported national averages.

Associate Professor, Director of the Division of Transplantation and Director of the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, is proud of Cannon and Orandi.

“Drs. Cannon and Orandi are wonderful leaders who will grow the Liver Transplant and Pediatric Liver Transplant programs,” said Locke. “UAB is consistently recognized as one of America’s top transplant centers, and I know that they will further the educational, research and clinical efforts of their respective programs.”