Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian will soon establish the only current liver transplant and kidney program in Orange County as it aims to establish an organ transplant center as early as 2027.
Last month, Hoag recruited Dr. Aaron Ahearn from USC Keck School of Medicine to lead the liver and kidney program as surgical director.
“Developing a robust organ transplant center has been an important focus for our team and builds on our legacy of clinical excellence,” Hoag CEO Robert Braithwaite said.
The announcement comes after more than five years of planning, program development and physician recruitment, building on Hoag’s liver and pancreas program, according to officials.
Braithwaite said that the program will help bring care closer to the region’s 3.1 million residents, particularly for liver transplants in which no program currently exists in Orange County.
“To help establish a transplant program in a community of this size and need is an extraordinary professional honor,” Ahearn said in a statement.
Ahearn, a nationally recognized transplant surgeon, will co-lead the program with Dr. Tse-Ling Fong and Dr. Brian Lee, co-directors of Hoag’s liver program, as well as Dr. Kenneth Chang. Hoag says it’s one of the only hospitals to have two board-certified hepatologists in all of OC.
Chang is the James & Pamela Muzzy Executive Medical Director Endowed Chair in Gastrointestinal Cancer and executive medical director of Hoag’s Digestive Health Institute.
Chang will also help oversee Hoag’s upcoming Cancer and Digestive Hospital Pavilion at its $1.2 billion Sun Family Campus, which is projected to fully open this September. The expanded campus in Irvine will also feature a hospital dedicated to women’s health.
