The much awaited heart transplant programme at the region’s tertiary care institute, PGIMER, has moved a step closer to reality with the head of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery (CTVS) department set to undergo training for the purpose in the USA . Even though the Post Graduate Institute Of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) had been trying to initiate the program for the last few years, it is only now that the infrastructural requirements have been completed. In fact, PGI is one of the 10 institutes in the country which have been identified by the Directorate General Of Health Services under the National Organ Transplant Programme. According to sources, as a part of the programme, Dr T Shyam K Singh, head, CTVS will be visiting the USA for training to initiate the heart transplant facility here in PGI. Dr K K Talwar, former director of PGI, who was also instrumental in initiating the programme at AIIMS, New Delhi , had announced the heart transplant programme about two years ago. Once the facility starts, the department of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery will manage the programme, and all modalities have already been worked out. A proposal in this regard had also been sent to the Union Health for a formal nod in the past. An inspection committee from the ministry had even visited PGI to evaluate if the institute had the adequate infrastructure and qualified doctors to support the heart transplant programme. Another futuristic plan from the PGI is the ongoing trial of stem cells in the treatment of terminal heart ailments. As part of the nationwide project under which 250 patients are being tried for the stem cell therapy, 50 trials are going on at PGI. The doctors added the trials of 30 of these patients had been completed and the success rate of these would be determined in the due course of time. The stem cell project is also taking care of the success of therapy on the diabetes and bone marrow transplant programme.