- EPIC and MGM Healthcare join hands to expand access to transplant expertise and advanced heart-failure therapies in Gujarat.
- The partnership will cover heart transplantation, LVAD implantation and mechanical circulatory support for eligible patients.
- MGM specialists will work at EPIC, while doctors, nurses and technicians from Ahmedabad will undergo advanced training in Chennai.
- Heart transplants in the state rose from 13 in 2021 to 36 in 2025, increasing Gujarat’s national share from 8.50% to 15.06%.
- An indigenous mechanical circulatory support device under development at MGM could potentially expand treatment choices and reduce dependence on donor hearts, subject to successful trials and approvals.
R MANICKAVASAGAM
AHMEDABAD, AUG 26
For patients whose failing hearts leave them with few options, the distance between Ahmedabad and advanced transplant expertise could soon become less of a barrier. In a significant clinical collaboration, EPIC Multispecialty Hospital has partnered with Chennai-based MGM Healthcare to deepen Gujarat’s capabilities in heart transplantation, LVAD implantation and mechanical circulatory support—bringing high-end expertise into Ahmedabad while creating a two-way clinical training and referral pathway.
The partnership comes at a time when Gujarat’s heart-transplant activity has been rising sharply. According to the figures cited from National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) data, Gujarat recorded 13 heart transplants in 2021, 20 in 2022, 29 in 2023, 33 in 2024 and 36 in 2025, taking its share of India’s heart transplants from 8.50% in 2021 to 15.06% in 2025.
EPIC, a 280-bed multispecialty hospital in Ahmedabad, already has an established heart-transplant programme; its first successful heart transplant was performed in 2023.
The new collaboration is intended to add the specialised experience of MGM Healthcare’s Institute of Heart & Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support to EPIC’s existing capabilities.
Beyond the transplant: keeping failing hearts supported
Under the clinical partnership, MGM Healthcare’s heart-transplant specialists will be available at EPIC for transplant procedures, while both institutions will collaborate on Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) implantation and advanced mechanical circulatory support for eligible patients.
LVADs can support circulation in patients with advanced heart failure when conventional treatment is no longer sufficient. Depending on the clinical situation, mechanical circulatory support may be used as a bridge to transplant or as longer-term therapy for patients who are not transplant candidates. MGM’s transplant institute describes LVAD and other ventricular assist devices as part of its mechanical circulatory support programme.)
Dr Anil Jain, Founder Director, EPIC Multispecialty Hospital, said, “EPIC has an established heart-transplant programme, and this partnership will strengthen the specialist expertise available to our patients. Having MGM Healthcare’s transplant specialists at EPIC will add further depth to the clinical management of complex transplant cases. The two institutions will also work together on LVAD implantation, providing an important treatment option for eligible patients with advanced heart failure.”
He added, “Senior MGM Healthcare team will visit our hospital and impart training to our team, including performing of heart transplants and other advanced services like LVAD implantation and mechanical circulatory support. We will also depute our team consisting of nurses, doctors and technicians to Chennai for further training. Some selected patients will be sent to MGM Healthcare for further treatment.”
Three decades of transplant and mechanical-support experience
Dr K. R. Balakrishnan, Chairman – Cardiac Sciences and Director, Institute of Heart & Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support, MGM Healthcare, said, “MGM Healthcare has considerable experience in heart transplantation, LVAD implantation and mechanical circulatory support for nearly three decades. The implantation devices are designed and manufactured by a 20-strong team of in-house engineers. EPIC Hospital has performed over 2,500 heart operations and many heart transplants. Our expertise, technology and clinical protocols will complement EPIC’s existing heart-transplant programme — particularly in terms of patient selection, transplant evaluation, donor management, surgery, post-transplant care and long-term follow-up.”
MGM Healthcare says its heart-and-lung transplant and mechanical circulatory support programme is backed by more than 30 years of experience in advanced heart-failure management, heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. Its programme has also included the use of ECMO as a bridge to heart transplantation and ventricular-assist-device procedures.
Balakrishnan said, “Patients with advanced and end-stage heart failure may require different forms of advanced therapy depending on their clinical condition, including heart transplantation or mechanical circulatory support. The clinical decision-making involves careful assessment, optimisation and multidisciplinary management. Through this partnership, our specialists will work with the EPIC team on heart-transplant procedures as well as LVAD implantation for eligible patients. This will bring our experience in advanced heart-failure and transplant care to patients from Gujarat and neighbouring states at EPIC.”
A hub-and-spoke model with Ahmedabad at its centre
The partnership is not being positioned simply as a visiting-specialist arrangement. It envisages a hub-and-spoke clinical model, with knowledge and skills moving in both directions.
MGM specialists will travel to Ahmedabad to work alongside the EPIC team, while EPIC’s doctors, nurses and technicians will undergo further training in Chennai. Selected patients requiring specialised treatment will also be referred to MGM Healthcare.
The model could allow patients to receive a greater part of their evaluation and treatment closer to home while retaining access to a highly specialised transplant centre when their clinical condition requires it.
For a state witnessing rising transplant numbers, such a model could be particularly significant because transplantation is not a single-day surgical event but a continuum involving patient selection, evaluation, donor coordination, surgery, intensive care, immunosuppression and lifelong follow-up. EPIC itself describes its transplant service as covering evaluation and listing through surgery and long-term post-transplant management.
From 13 heart transplants to 36: Gujarat’s changing cardiac map
The partnership arrives against a backdrop of expanding heart-transplant activity in Gujarat.
The state recorded 36 heart transplants in 2025, compared with 13 in 2021. Nationally, India recorded 239 heart transplants in 2025, according to the NOTTO figures cited by the institutions.
Between 2023 and 2025, Gujarat accounted for 98 of 713 heart transplants nationally, or 13.74% of the total, according to the data shared for the partnership.
The numbers underline a changing healthcare landscape in Gujarat, where increasing transplant activity is creating a parallel need for sophisticated transplant evaluation, mechanical circulatory support, critical care and long-term follow-up.
The next frontier: supporting the heart before transplant
Balakrishnan also revealed that MGM Healthcare is developing an indigenous mechanical circulatory support device.
“MGM Healthcare is developing an indigenous device which is undergoing trial on animals. This will help to cure the patients and will reduce the dependency on heart transplantation. The device is under trial and is most likely to be available by the end of next year,” he said.
The development, if successfully translated into clinical use following the required regulatory and clinical evaluation, could potentially add another option to the advanced-heart-failure treatment spectrum.
For patients, the larger significance of the EPIC–MGM partnership lies in creating more choices before the point of no return—from advanced heart-failure management and LVAD support to transplant evaluation and transplantation itself.
A partnership designed to move expertise, not just patients
The collaboration could therefore mark a shift from a conventional referral model towards distributed specialist care, where expertise, protocols, training and technology move alongside patients.
For Gujarat and neighbouring states, the objective is clear: strengthen local capability while retaining access to Chennai’s established transplant expertise when required.
As heart-transplant numbers rise, the measure of a mature transplant ecosystem will increasingly be not just how many hearts are transplanted, but how effectively patients are identified, stabilised, supported while awaiting organs and cared for after transplantation.
The EPIC–MGM partnership seeks to build precisely that wider ecosystem—one in which a failing heart does not automatically mean a race to another city, and where advanced mechanical support can buy precious time while the right treatment path is determined.
