Dr. Dina Al Rameni is a cardiac and heart transplant surgeon at Hartford Hospital specializing in heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. She serves as surgical director of temporary mechanical circulatory support, caring for critically ill patients requiring advanced forms of heart and lung support.
What makes you a Healthcare Hero?
Over the past year, I have helped grow Hartford Hospital’s heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support programs while caring for some of our sickest patients. Our team performed a record 41 heart transplants in 2025, and I personally performed more than 40 transplants in Hartford Hospital.
I also helped expand our temporary mechanical circulatory support capabilities by introducing new devices and surgical strategies, and was recently appointed surgical director of temporary mechanical circulatory support.
I am also very invested in mentoring future clinicians and showing them what heart surgery is all about.
Tell us about a challenge in your job that you were able to overcome.
One of my biggest challenges was helping build a growing heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support program while being relatively early in my career. I learned to earn trust through hard work, collaboration and results, while introducing new technologies and approaches that have expanded what we can offer our sickest patients.
What’s your next major goal and/or challenge?
My next major goal is to help expand our transplant program beyond isolated heart transplantation by building lung and adult congenital heart transplant programs and developing multivisceral transplant capabilities, including heart-liver and heart-lung transplantation. We already perform heart-kidney transplants, and I hope to continue broadening the options available to complex patients.
