January 30, 2026: KIMS (Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences) Hospitals, Bengaluru, successfully concluded KITES-2026 (KIMS International Thoracic Transplant & ECMO Summit), a landmark three-day academic event. The summit established Bengaluru as a premier hub for advanced heart and lung care, focusing on the life-saving potential of transplantation and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO).

The conference was officially inaugurated on January 22, 2026, marking the beginning of a rigorous academic exchange between global and national medical pioneers to improve organ replacement therapy in India.

Dr. Sandeep Attawar, Founder Director & Chair of Advanced Heart Failure, Terminal Lung Disease &The Solid Thoracic Organ Transplant Program, KIMS Institute of Heart, Lung Transplantation & Assist Devices, emphasized that transplants and ECMO must be structured, timely interventions rather than last resorts. Dr. Nitish Shetty, Managing Director, KIMS Hospitals, Bengaluru focused on the necessity of protocol-driven systems, ethical governance, and long-term rehabilitation in critical care. Dr. Pavan Yadav M V, Clinical Director & Senior Consultant – Interventional Pulmonology & Sleep Medicine, Associate Director - Lung Transplantation, highlighted the rising need for lung transplants in younger populations and the vital role of multidisciplinary coordination.

The summit featured an esteemed international faculty representing some of the world’s most advanced transplant and ECMO centres. Global experts included Dr. Trina Augustin, MD, Senior Associate Consultant and Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic; Dr. Pedro Catarino, MD, FRCS, Professor of Cardiac Surgery and Staff Physician at the Smidt Heart Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; Dr. David Erasmus, MD, Medical Director, Vanderbilt Lung Institute Lung Transplant Program and Associate Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt University; Dr. Stefan Wiebe, MSc (Bioethics), ECMO Lead at Helios HSK Wiesbaden, Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago and Co-Founder of EINZ; Dr. Patrick Wieruszewski, PharmD, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Pharmacy, Mayo Clinic; and Dr. Suraj Yalamuri, MD, Consultant and Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic, Medical Director for HeartWorks and Co-Founder of EINZ. Their participation enabled deep clinical insights, hands-on learning and global best-practice sharing in thoracic transplantation and ECMO care.

Organised at the state-of-the-art campus of Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), the three-day international summit brought together leading national and international experts in cardiothoracic transplantation, pulmonology, critical care, anaesthesia, perfusion sciences, and transplant coordination. The conference served as a high-impact academic platform to exchange evidence-based knowledge, share complex case experiences, and deliberate on future directions in organ replacement therapies and life-support technologies.