Professor
James K. Kirklin Endowed Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Director, James and John Kirklin Institute for Research in Surgical Outcomes (KIRSO)
Areas of Interest
health services research, surgical outcomes
Biography
Dr. James K. Kirklin is a professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and currently holds the James K. Kirklin Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Kirklin has formerly held the John W. Kirklin Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery, as well as the UAB Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Surgical Research. Dr. Kirklin served as director of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery from 2006-2016. He graduated from Ohio State University in 1969, where he excelled as a springboard and tower diver, twice receiving All-American Honors. Dr. Kirklin received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1973 as a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. After completing general and cardiothoracic surgery residencies at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1979, he pursued additional training at Boston Children’s Hospital and UAB. Dr. Kirklin was appointed assistant professor of surgery at UAB in 1981, director of cardiac transplantation in 1986 and professor of surgery in 1987. Consistently cited in “Best Doctors in America,” Dr. Kirklin’s clinical interests focus on surgery for pediatric and adult congenital heart disease, heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support.
Dr. Kirklin’s many research interests involve cardiac transplantation, mechanical circulatory support and outcomes research in cardiac surgery. Dr. Kirklin and his colleagues at UAB established the Cardiac Transplant Research Database in 1990, which generated the first multi-institutional collaborative research in heart transplantation, producing numerous seminal publications over a 20-year span. In 1993, Kirklin and his UAB research group initiated the Pediatric Heart Transplant Study Group, which continues to lead the field in multi-institutional studies. Currently Dr. Kirklin is the principal investigator of the $15-million, NIH-sponsored national Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS). UAB established the James and John Kirklin Institute for Research in Surgical Outcomes in 2016 to honor both Dr. James K. Kirklin and Dr. John W Kirklin.
Dr. Kirklin is the past president of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and is a member of numerous academic societies. He served as editor of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation from 2000-2009, and he is principal editor of the ISHLT Monograph Series, in which nine books to date have been published. He was first author on the premier textbook on Heart Transplantation and co-author of the fourth edition of the Cardiac Surgery textbook. He has authored more than 500 scientific publications. In 2014, he was the first recipient of the ISHLT Distinguished Educator Award.
Books
HEART TRANSPLANTATION
Medicine, Surgery, Immunology, Research: KIRKLIN JK, Young JB, McGiffin DC: Publishers: Churchill-Livingstone. January 2002.
MECHANICAL CIRCULATORY SUPPORT
ISHLT Monograph Series: Editors: O. H. Frazier, MD and James K. KIRKLIN, MD. Publishers: Elsevier, New York, NY. September 2006.
PEDIATRIC HEART TRANSPLANTATION
ISHLT Monograph Series: Editors: Charles E. Canter, MD and James K. KIRKLIN, MD.
Publishers: Elsevier, New York, NY. April 2008
ADVANCED HEART FAILURE
ISHLT Monograph Series: Editors: Nick Banner, MD; Mariell Jessup, MD and James K. KIRKLIN, MD.
Publishers: Elsevier, New York, NY. April 2009
HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL HEART AND LUNG TRANSPLANTATION
ISHLT Monograph Series: Editors: James K. KIRKLIN MD, MR Mehra, MD, LJ West, MD
Publishers: Elsevier, New York, NY. April 2010
INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN CARDIOTHORACIC TRANSPLANTATION AND MECHANICAL CIRCULATORY SUPPORT
ISHLT Monograph Series: Editors: Martha Mooney, MD; Margaret Hannan, MD; Shahid Husain, MD and James K. KIRKLIN, MD.
Publishers: Elsevier, New York, NY, April 2011
ISHLT GUIDELINES FOR THE CARE OF HEART TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS
ISHLT Monograph Series: Editors: Maria Rosa Costanzo, MD; Sharon Hunt, MD; David Taylor, MD and James K. KIRKLIN, MD.
Publishers: UAB Printing, Birmingham, AL, April 2012
KIRKLIN/BARRATT-BOYES CARDIAC SURGERY, 4th EDITION: Kouchoukos NT, Blackstone EH, Hanley FL, KIRKLIN JK
Publishers: Elsevier Saunders. October 2012
Pediatric Lung Transplantation
ISHLT Monograph Series: Editors: Samuel Goldfarb, MD; Christian Benden, MD; Stuart Sweet, MD and James K. KIRKLIN, MD.
Publishers: UAB Printing, Birmingham, AL, April 2013
ISHLT Guidelines for the Management of Pediatric Heart Failure
ISHLT Monograph Series: Editors: Richard Kirk, MD, Anne Dipchand, MD, David Rosenthal, MD and James K. KIRKLIN, MD.
Publishers: UAB Printing, Birmingham, AL, April 2014
Pulmonary Hypertension and Right Heart Failure
ISHLT Monograph Series: Editors: Raymond Benza, MD, Paul Corris, MD, Myung Park, MD, Patirica Uber, MD and James K. KIRKLIN, MD.
Publishers: UAB Printing, Birmingham, AL, April 2015
Management of heart failure: Volume 2: Surgical
Transplantation for End-Stage Heart Disease: David C. McGiffin, MD, James K. KIRKLIN, MD, James E. Davies, Jr., MD, Spencer J. Melby, MD.
Springer-Verlag London Ltd. 2016. J. Raman (ed.) November 2015(In Press)
Education
Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Residency
Massachusetts General Hospital
General Surgery
Residency
Massachusetts General Hospital
Cardiothoracic Surgery, Chief Resident
Residency
Children’s Hospital Boston, MA
Cardiothoracic Surgery, Chief Resident
Residency
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Cardiothoracic Surgery
Contact Information
Email
jkirklin@uab.edu
Phone
205-934-3991
Campus Address
THT 721