The Health Science Center has performed more than 2,400 transplants since its inception in 1972.

In 1992 the Health Science Center performed the first successful combined kidney-pancreas transplant in New York State. This procedure is extremely important for people with diabetes and kidney disease.

In 1965 the first successful kidney transplant in an African-American in New York City occurred at the Health Science Center.

In 1981 the Health Science Center became the first center in New York, and among the first in the country to use the anti-rejection drug cyclosporine in kidney transplantation.

Dr. Samuel Kountz, the country’s first African American transplant surgeon, founded the Health Science Center’s kidney transplant program in 1972.

In laboratory tests, Dr. Kountz proved the efficacy of the drug methylprednisolone, still widely used today in reversing acute rejection of transplanted kidneys. Dr. Kountz also pioneered tissue typing, which led to the increased use of kidneys from unrelated donors and cadavers.

In 1964 the Center opened the first federally funded dialysis clinic in the United States.

The Health Science Center has Brooklyn’s only Liver Transplantation Program, one of six in the state.

All the Health Science Center’s transplant surgeons are board certified.

All the Health Science Center’s transplant surgeons are board certified.

The Health Science Center’s University Hospital of Brooklyn was designated as one of the 15 national sites for MOTTEP - the Minority Organ and Tissue Transplant Education Program - the only designated site in New York State for this National Institutes of Health sponsored program.

The Health Science Center has teamed up with the Mickey Mantle Foundation and Brooklyn Union to increase awareness of the importance of organ donation. The Health Science Center is the only medical center that the Mantle Foundation has teamed up with on the East Coast to perform this valuable service.