Podcasts

This week we review a recent ACTION NETWORK project comparing outcomes of children with CHD who undergo VAD support in comparison to those children with VAD’s who do not have CHD. How do morbidity and mortality rates compare between these two cohorts? Why might there be differences in outcomes between these two groups? How are heart failure and transplant cardiologists going to improve outcomes in complex CHD VAD patients in the future? How can all cardiologists make more timely referrals to heart failure and transplant cardiologists for their congenital heart patients? Dr. Shahnawaz Amdani of the Cleveland Clinic provides many insights this week.

This week we review a work from the department of cardiology and department of cardiac surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital on late hypertension in patients following coarctation repair. Late hypertension has been associated previously with late transverse aortic arch Z score but can this be predicted by the immediate postoperative transverse aortic arch Z score also? What factors account for late hypertension in the coarctation patient? Should more patients have their aorta repaired from a sternotomy? Dr. Sanam Safi-Rasmussen, who is a PhD candidate at Copenhagen University, shares her insights from a work she performed while a research fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital.

This week we review a report from the teams at University College, Dublin and Texas Children’s Hospital about a collaborative approach to education in which two centers across the globe participate in a shared fellow learning conference. In this conference which is aimed at fellow education, topics are chosen and discussed with facilitated learning from faculty at both sites. What can be gained for fellows on opposite sides of the Atlantic that cannot be learned from exposure to just their one site? How did this approach help fellows learn about how to deal with uncertainty in decision making? How did this trans-continental learning approach enhance patient and team communication? These are amongst the many questions posed to senior cardiologist and senior author of this week’s work, Professor Colin McMahon of University College, Dublin, Ireland.