Farr Takes Helm of Heart Failure/LVAD/Transplant Section

Maryjane Farr, M.D., joined UT Southwestern Medical Center in September 2021 as Professor of Medicine and Section Chief of Heart Failure, VAD, and Transplant. Previously, she was the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Adult Heart Transplant Program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Dr. Farr is a graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University, the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons, and the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. She was the Director of Clinical Trials in Heart Failure and Transplant at Columbia from 2007-12, received an NIH training grant for her master’s degree (2010-12), and was awarded the Shorin-Silverstein Research in Transplantation Award [RR1] at Columbia for 2012-14.

Dr. Farr directed the Adult Heart Transplant Program at Columbia for six years, and she has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts in the field of heart failure, VAD, or transplant. She has participated in scholarly work and education with the ACC, AHA, HFSA, ISHLT, and AST. She has been an active member and leader in UNOS/OPTN, serving three years on the Thoracic Committee, including as its Heart Subcommittee Chair, two years on the Membership and Professional Standards Committee, two years as a Region 9 Associate Councilor, and recently as an appointed member of its Board of Directors.

She is an Associate Editor of Transplantation and a Content Editor for Circulation. Her key areas of interest are in organ allocation, primary graft failure, minimization of immunosuppression, and overall long-term survival of heart transplant recipients.

Dr. Farr’s expertise will benefit the entire continuum of patients at UT Southwestern who have advanced heart failure: from a streamlined and more patient-centric referral and evaluation process to waitlisting and ultimately increasing the number of transplanted patients. Such advancements will be possible in part by capitalizing on Dr. Farr’s leadership and UT Southwestern’s three decades of heart transplantation excellence.

“Transplant is truly a team sport here at UT Southwestern, and Dr. Farr has a strong record of empowering high-performing teams with great outcomes,” says John Warner, M.D., Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs. “Her rigorous commitment to all components of our mission – to educate, discover, and heal – will enhance our service to our community and make lives better for our patients and their families.”

Dr. Farr says, “Under the leadership of Dr. Mark Drazner – our 2021 HFSA President – and Dr. Jenny Thibodeau, UTSW has evolved into one of the most established heart failure programs in the country; my experience in heart transplantation and VAD are a great complement to the team they have put together and to the robust academic and clinical excellence right in front of me. There is no better time to be at UT Southwestern.”

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