Sanjay Kulkarni, MD, MHCM, FACS
Professor of Surgery (Transplant)Cards
About
Titles
Professor of Surgery (Transplant)
Interim Division Chief, Transplant & Immunology Surgery; Surgical Director of Kidney Transplantation, Yale-New Haven Hospital
Positions outside Yale
Physician Executive Director, Clinical Continuity & Integration, Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale-New Haven Hospital; Service Line Director (Interim), Yale-New Haven Transplantation Center, Yale-New Haven Hospital; Medical Director, New England Donor Services, New England Donor Services
Biography
Dr. Kulkarni is a multi-organ transplant surgeon and the Director of the Kidney Transplant Program at Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital. The clinical program has been one of the largest programs in New England since 2008, in terms of new patients listed, the number of living donor transplants, and the total number of kidney transplants performed. Clinical highlights of the program include an accelerated work-up and listing process (AJKD 2012;60(2):288, Healthgrades Award for overall program performance 2010, and implementation of a total laparoscopic kidney donation procedure. Watch a video with Dr. Sanjay Kulkarni >>
Dr. Kulkarni is the principal investigator on numerous clinical research trials and projects. His research has focused on the use of anti-complement therapies to improve kidney graft survival and novel approaches to improving living donor outcomes through surgical innovations, including low-pressure laparoscopy. Ongoing research initiatives include the ethics and implementation of patient-centered care in the care of living donors through shared-decision making, identifying reasons why individuals opt out of donation, and fostering the development of local donor communities using a social capital framework.
Appointed to the role of Physician Executive Director, Clinical Continuity & Integration for Yale-New Haven Hospital, Dr. Kulkarni aims to improve the patient experience by identifying areas of fractured care within the health system and implementing novel interventions to improve care coordination within the domain networks.
Appointments
Transplant & Immunology Surgery
Interim Section ChiefDualTransplant & Immunology Surgery
ProfessorPrimaryNephrology
ProfessorSecondary
Other Departments & Organizations
Education & Training
- MHCM
- Harvard University, School of Public Health (2018)
- Global Clinical Scholars Training Program (GCSRT)
- Harvard Medical School (2015)
- Fellow
- University of Chicago Hospitals, Chicago, IL (2004)
- Fellow
- University Hospital Essen, Germany (2004)
- Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP)
- University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine (2004)
- Chief Resident
- University of Chicago Hospitals, Chicago, IL (2002)
- Resident
- University of Chicago Hospitals, Chicago, IL (2001)
- Research Fellow
- University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (1999)
- MD
- Medical College Wisconsin (1995)
- BS
- University of Wisconsin (1990)
- Research Fellow
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI (1990)
Research
Overview
Living kidney donation has been a primary clinical and academic interest in my career. Yale-New Haven Hospitals' novel Center for Living Organ Donors is a care model that provides an opportunity to study how to improve public awareness of living donation. Several studies are underway that focus on improving individual access to living donation (YNHH 15-second connection; https://www.ynhh.org/videos/center-for-living-donors-finding-donor-238) and provide focused education to individuals in underserved communities related to preventive measures that may abrogate the development of end-organ failure.
We have completed a prospective, multi-center study of 307 living kidney donors through a grant from the Greenwall Foundation. The study looks at an individuals' perception of living a donation, their risk tolerance, and if relationship closeness impacts a donor's willingness to take risks. Several publications and international presentations have come from the ongoing research:
1. Thiessen C, Gannon J, Li S, Skrip L, Dobosz D, Gan G, Deng Y, Kennedy C, Gray D, Mussell A, Reese P, Gordon E, Kulkarni S. Quantifying Risk Tolerance Among Potential Living Kidney Donors with the Donation-Specific Risk Questionnaire. American Journal of Kidney Diseases 2021;87(2):246-258.
2. Kulkarni S, Thiessen C, Formica R, Schilsky M, Mulligan D and D’ Aquila R. The long-term follow-up and support for living organ donors: A center-based initiative founded on developing a community of living donors. American Journal of Transplantation 2016;16(12):3385-3391.
3. Thiessen C, Gordon EJ, Reese PP, Kulkarni S. Development of a Donor-Centered Approach to Risk Assessment: Rebalancing Non-maleficence and Autonomy. American Journal of Transplantation 2015;15(9):2314-2323.
4. Thiessen C, Kim YA, Formica R, Bia M and Kulkarni S. Confidentiality and availability of an “alibi” for potential living kidney donors in the United States. Journal of Medical Ethics 2015:41(7):506-510.
Access to transplantation encompasses the referral, listing, and transplant itself. One area that has not been studied extensively is patients who are listed but remain inactive on the waitlist. Approximately a third of all listed patients are inactive, which means they are not eligible to receive deceased donor organ offers. Collaborating with YanHong Deng, MPH, and Geliang Gan, MS from the Yale Center for Analytical Sciences, we have used novel multi-state models to analyze predictors of inactive to active transitions. For kidney transplant patients, there are clear racial disparities in resolving issues of inactive status which we hope will lead to better care coordination between transplant centers, dialysis units, and providers to improve access to transplantation. Our first major publication on the topic was published in JAMASurgery and we are currently working on applying this methodology to the liver transplant waitlist:
Kulkarni S, Ladin K, Haakinson D, Greene E, Geilang G, and Deng Y. Association of Racial Disparity with Access to Kidney Transplant After the Implementation of the New Kidney Allocation System. JAMASurgery 2019;154(7):618-625.
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
Academic Achievements and Community Involvement
Clinical Care
Overview
Sanjay Kulkarni, MD, is a multi-organ transplant surgeon and medical director of the Center for Living Organ Donors at Yale New Haven Hospital. In this role Dr. Kulkarni helped pioneer a unique initiative that is first in the United States of its kind. The Center for Living Organ Donors creates supportive communities of living donors and provides them with free, lifelong local medical monitoring for any health issues that may arise related to their organ donation.
“I think I have the best job in the world,” says Dr. Kulkarni. “I deal with living organ donors every single day—individuals who constantly remind you what a major difference one person’s generosity can make in another person’s life, and for the benefit of society.”
Dr. Kulkarni performs all living donor evaluations and 95 percent of kidney donor surgeries for Yale Medicine. He has played a role in such high-profile surgeries as Connecticut’s first eight-patient kidney transplant exchange in 2015. In this complex match-up, four women underwent surgery to give four men the kidneys they needed.
Dr. Kulkarni is also the surgical director of the Yale Medicine Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program, a destination center for patients who need these transplants, and the largest program for both kidney transplantation and living-donor kidney transplantation in New England. Dr. Kulkarni and his colleagues in the program specialize in minimally invasive surgical approaches, which typically reduce pain and hasten recoveries.
An associate professor of transplant surgery and of nephrology at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Kulkarni is also the scientific director of the Yale Transplant Research Unit, which pursues new therapies for transplant patients. His personal research explores the ethics surrounding care of living donors, understanding the reasons why some people come forward to be considered as a donor then opt out, and the use of social networking to foster donor communities.
Clinical Specialties
Fact Sheets
Kidney Transplant
Learn More on Yale MedicineLiving Donor Organ Transplantation
Learn More on Yale MedicineLiver Transplant
Learn More on Yale MedicineAnesthesia for Organ Transplant
Learn More on Yale Medicine
Board Certifications
Surgery General
- Certification Organization
- AB of Surgery
- Latest Certification Date
- 2023
- Original Certification Date
- 2003
Yale Medicine News
Links & Media
Media
- Using multi-state modeling, we have developed a dynamic prediction calculator that provides patients, transplant centers, and dialysis providers how an inactive status change quantitatively impacts the probability of transplant.
News
- May 02, 2024
Yale Surgeons Recognized by Connecticut Magazine's 2024 “Top Doctors” List
- May 01, 2023
Connecticut Magazine’s 2023 “Top Doctors” issue recognizes 81 Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center physicians
- May 03, 2022
Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital physicians recognized as Connecticut Magazine 'Best Doctors'
- June 15, 2021
Pneumocystis Pneumonia Outbreak Chronicled In Clinical Infectious Diseases