About our ECMO Program

Located in Seattle, Washington, UW Medicine’s ECMO program provides life support via a heart and lung (ECMO) machine in adult patients whose heart and lungs have failed or are not working properly.

Our team consists of specially trained ICU nurses, respiratory therapists (ECMO specialists), and clinical perfusionists, who work in conjunction with ECMO-trained critical care doctors and their teams in the cardiothoracic, medical, and trauma/surgical intensive care units across UW Medicine. We primarily serve as a resource and referral center for patients throughout the PNW region including Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho.

Our program is unique to the PNW region because it interfaces closely with our level one trauma services at Harborview, and our advanced heart failure, and heart and lung transplant programs at UW Medical Center–Montlake, leveraging the specialties of both institutions.

The patient transport branch of our program, Airlift Northwest (ALNW), is the first and oldest air medical transport service in the Pacific Northwest. Airlift NW was founded in 1982 by Dr. Michael Copass—then director of emergency services at Harborview Medical Center and Medic One—and is proud to be the only flight entity in the region affiliated directly with an academic medical institution. This relationship amongst Airlift Northwest, Harborview Medical Center, and UW Medical Center—Montlake, plays a key role in providing best practice, evidence-based, high quality critical care to patients in the UW Medicine system and in hospitals throughout the region, whether in a hospital bed, in an ambulance, or in the air.