Introduction

The cardiac focus group leverages the expertise of members from ~25 major quaternary children’s hospitals with large congenital cardiovascular surgery programs, to examine models of care delivery from a fetal and neonatal perspective, and quality outcomes for these infants.  

Mission & Goals

Our initial mission was to describe the integration of the neonatologist into care delivery, as well as describe training pathways and careers for this niche. This has been expanded to include variations in fetal and neonatal diagnostic practices.  Concurrently we investigate outcomes of preterm infants with congenital heart disease, and outcomes in collaboration with other focus groups such as congenital diaphragmatic hernia with heart disease, and pulmonary vein stenosis in severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and experiences with PDA device closures.  Our group is also creating educational modules (such as delivery room resuscitation for the infant with critical CHD), andsharing quality improvement practices (such as opioid exposure management) and consensus guidelines (such as nutrition for the preterm cardiac infant).   We provide individual and group mentorship for fellow-driven scholarly projects and would welcome involvement from parental organizations.

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