As surgical director of the lung transplantation program at NYU Langone Health, Dr. Stephanie Chang made history when she performed the world’s first fully robotic double lung transplant in October. Unlike in a traditional double lung transplant operation—during which a surgeon cuts a massive incision across the patient’s chest and breaks the breastbone to gain access to the area—Chang and her team used a robotic surgery system to give a 57-year-old woman new lungs using a handful of incisions no larger than two inches each, drastically reducing her recovery time and the overall trauma on her body. Chang has repeated the feat at least three times since, and within the next decade, expects the technique to transform double lung transplantation, a surgery the NYU Langone Transplant Institute performs more than 70 times per year.
She’s also working to make transplant care more accessible and environmentally responsible. “We’re trying to change the field on multiple different fronts,” Chang says. Her team recently launched a new trial testing whether people who die of a heart attack in the emergency department—rather than in a carefully controlled environment like the operating room—can supply viable lungs. They’re also experimenting with transporting donor lungs on commercial, rather than private, flights in hopes of reducing the cost and environmental impact of these procedures.