Pediatric Cardiology Clinical Care
Division of Pediatric Cardiology faculty offer both routine and comprehensive, specialized care at the Children's Health Heart Center for children with congenital and acquired heart diseases.
The Heart Center's team of professionals includes cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, cardiac intensivists, cardiac anesthesiologists, cardiac-specific advanced practice providers (APPs), and nurses and staff uniquely trained and dedicated to care for children with congenital and acquired heart disease. In addition to providing the highest-quality clinical and surgical care to children, we also provide nationally recognized care for adults impacted by congenital heart conditions.
Collectively, we are committed to improving the health of the larger pediatric cardiology community by sharing our innovations and research.
Inpatient Services
Our inpatient service is divided between our Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and the Acute Care Cardiology Unit, where all beds have telemetry capability with central monitoring. Both units are leaders in their respective learning network communities (PC4 and PAC3). As a result, both units specialize in guideline-directed therapy and improvement science and demonstrate some of the highest-quality outcomes in North America, as indicated by risk-adjusted registry data.
Outpatient Services
More than 40,000 cardiology outpatients are seen each year at The Heart Center and regional outreach clinics. Subspecialty cardiology clinics – including heart transplantation, heart failure, arrhythmia, pacemaker, preventive cardiology, pulmonary artery hypertension, and young adult congenital heart disease – are held on a weekly or monthly basis.
Between inpatient and outpatient services, we offer many subspecialized programs, including those focused on:
- Single-ventricle defects
- Biventricular surgical correction
- Lymphatic disorders
- Pulmonary hypertension
- Pulmonary vein stenosis
- Heart failure/cardiomyopathy
- Transplant and ventricular assist device (VAD) medicine
- Cardiac genetics
- Inherited arrhythmias
- Implantable devices (pacemakers and automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, or AICDs)
- Exercise and sports cardiology
Multidisciplinary Clinic Programs
Several of our clinics are multidisciplinary, as exemplified by the Preventive Cardiology Clinic, which works to serve children with hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, and metabolic syndrome (obesity, insulin resistance, increased triglycerides, decreased high-density lipoprotein, and hypertension), as well as our Fontan Program, which brings together experts from cardiology, hepatology, neuro- and clinical-psychology, and child life.
Our team of clinical experts provides comprehensive and personalized physical assessments and lifestyle evaluations for patients and their families through the development of individualized programs.
Featured Clinical Programs
Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Care (PACC)
As the nation’s highest-volume VAD and transplant program, our multidisciplinary team delivers advanced, evidence-based care that consistently achieves superior outcomes. Over the last five years, our program has maintained a low waitlist mortality rate of less than 5%, associated with our internationally recognized high success rates with VAD support, and has achieved exceptional post-transplant survival.
Since 2022, we have had the good fortune to be the busiest pediatric heart transplant center in the country. The comprehensive pediatric heart failure program offers state-of-the-art management for both acquired and congenital cardiac conditions, integrating innovative therapies and clinical trials with rigorous clinical oversight to optimize patient outcomes.
Complex Biventricular Repair Program
Our multidisciplinary team provides advanced care for pediatric patients with severe congenital heart defects historically managed under single-ventricle physiology pathways. Utilizing a state-of-the-art cardiac imaging and surgical approach, we maximize the potential for ventricular recruitment and restoration of biventricular physiology. Since 2023, we have successfully transitioned 44 patients from the typical Fontan pathway to a biventricular circulation, thereby reducing the long-term risk of renal, hepatic, and lymphatic dysfunction associated with single-ventricle physiology. For patients who develop such complications, our team possesses specialized expertise in their comprehensive management.
Advanced Cross-sectional Imaging
We operate one of the nation’s largest and most experienced advanced pediatric cross-sectional imaging programs, which works in close partnership with our historically outstanding cardiac catheterization program. This expert partnership enables minimally invasive alternatives to the traditional need for open-heart surgery and regularly facilitates improved management strategies for the most complex patient scenarios. As an example, our use of MRI-guided cardiac catheterization – available at only a limited number of centers nationwide – minimizes patient radiation exposure while delivering superior anatomic and functional imaging.