Methodist Hospital lung transplant program has some of the best outcomes in the nation

Among programs performing at least 100 lung transplants in the 2.5 year period captured in the most recent SRTR report, IU Health had the best 1-year survival rate in the country.

For more than 35 years, the IU Health Methodist Hospital Thoracic Transplant team has transformed patients' lives through lung transplants. Methodist Hospital hosts the only lung transplant program in the state of Indiana—serving patients with end-stage lung disease, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), interstitial lung disease, pulmonary hypertension and cystic fibrosis.

In 2025, 46 lung transplants were performed at Methodist Hospital. And in April of 2025, the team celebrated its 1,200th transplant completed since the program’s inception.

This month, the team has additional accomplishments to celebrate. According to data released by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) about outcomes for transplant patients between January 2023 and June 2025, the IU Health lung transplant team achieved multiple outcomes that were more favorable than national averages.

First, during the time frame evaluated in the SRTR report, the program had zero transplant waitlist mortalities. “Based on the risk profile of our transplant waitlist, the predictive modeling had an expected mortality rate of 14 individuals. That's 14 patients who we were able to offer transplant to— who would have likely died in the average program in the United States,” says Chadrick Denlinger, MD, surgical director of the lung transplant program.

Additionally, once IU Health lung transplant patients are added to the waitlist, they are nearly twice as likely to survive to transplant and through the first year after the operation, compared to national averages.

Overall, lung transplant patients at IU Health had one of the best 1-year survival rates in the country, and among programs performing at least 100 transplants in the 2.5 year period captured in the most recent SRTR report, IU Health had the best survival rate in the country.

These truly impressive metrics speak to the expertise and diligence of this multidisciplinary team through every step of a patient’s transplant journey. The collaboration and collective decision-making of the transplant team are among the most important contributing factors for the program’s success.

Another important factor is the work patients do before and after their transplant— supported by multidisciplinary teams. “The staff at the Methodist Hospital Center of Life for Thoracic Transplant (COLTT) have always done fabulous work in both the prehab and rehab phases of therapy. More recently, the nursing staff on 4East at Methodist have done great work helping to get patients prepared for transplant when they are too unstable to do prehab as outpatients,” says Denlinger.

Thank you to all these dedicated team members for pursuing excellence, supporting patients and achieving some of the best outcomes in the country.