Gabriel Loor, MD, featured as panelist at the Annual Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Health, Innovation, and Technology Summit for advancements in lung transplant

Gabriel Loor, MD, surgical director of the lung transplant program and co-chief, section of adult cardiac surgery at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center (Baylor St. Luke’s) and associate professor of surgery and director of lung transplantation in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, was recently featured on a panel at the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's annual Health, Innovation, and Technology Summit to discuss how biomedical innovation and technology is pushing Houston into the future. 

Facilitated by Chamber President & CEO, Dr. Laura Murillo, the summit featured a series of panel discussions with industry experts who spoke to hundreds of area business leaders on various aspects of innovation and technology, including a conversation with Dr. Loor on how to foster greater developments in medical technology. During the panel, Dr. Loor highlighted recent advancements in the Baylor St. Luke’s lung transplant program, specifically the use of new and innovative technology to make lung transplant surgeries more efficient and successful than ever before.

"I was drawn by the innovation and advancement of medicine taking place here at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, the Texas Heart® Institute, and the Texas Medical Center,” noted Dr. Loor. “The groundbreaking research conducted day in and day out is proof that we are committed to the highest levels of care and delivering the most effective treatment options to our patients.”

Baylor St. Luke’s was the first hospital in Texas to perform a breathing lung transplant using the Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion (EVLP) procedure with Organ Care System Lung (OCS Lung) technology. This technology is designed to keep donor lungs functioning and "breathing" in human-like conditions from the time of the donor procedure all the way to the transplant surgery. Loor went on to detail the importance of this groundbreaking technology and Baylor St. Luke's commitment to being at the forefront of medical advancements.

Dr. Loor is the International Principal Investigator for the EXPAND II OCS trial, the largest study in the U.S. evaluating the ability to increase the number of useable donor lungs using the OCS technology, which was officially approved by the FDA on March 23, 2018.