Cardiology | Department of Pediatrics

Overview Julie Vincent, MD, chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology and Emile Bacha, MD, chief of the Division of Cardiac, Thoracic, and Vascular Surgery.

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology collaborates closely with the Congenital and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Program in the Division of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, led by Emile Bacha, MD. Together we offer groundbreaking, state-of-the-art cardiac care to all patients and families who are affected by cardiac illness or disease. Our mission is threefold:

Our ultimate goal is to cure heart disease one gene, one cell, one heart at a time through clinical, scientific, and academic excellence.

Faculty members of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology are premier cardiologists who trained in the full range of related subspecialties. We provide comprehensive care for a wide spectrum of cardiac conditions and diseases that affect fetuses, newborns, infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. These conditions include acquired heart disease; fetal, pediatric, and adult congenital heart defects and anomalies; arrhythmias; cardiomyopathies; heart failure; heart transplant; pulmonary hypertension; and much more.

To provide the most accurate diagnoses we use innovative, state-of-the-art technologies including fetal and pediatric advanced cardiac imaging and functional assessment modalities. These include transthoracic and transesophageal imaging, strain analysis, 3D-echocardiography, cardiac MRI and CT imaging, fetal echocardiography, 3D-printing and stress echo, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, cardiac catheterization, pulmonary vasoreactivity assessment, and electrocardiography and electrophysiologic procedures with 3D-mapping.

The Divisions of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery offer multiple specialized patient-care programs and services at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) and NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Childrens Hospital. These include:

Our subspecialty teams provide inpatient services and consultations at Morgan Stanley Childrens Hospital as well as new and follow-up outpatient services on campus at CUIMC. We also provide general pediatric cardiology services, transthoracic and fetal echocardiography, electrocardiograms (EKGs), and holter monitoring at off-site practices in Darien, CT, Paramus, NJ, West 86th Street in Manhattan, and in White Plains, NY.

Our team participates in several multidisciplinary conferences including a weekly patient management conference and a weekly surgical conference. In addition to members of pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery, participants include cardiac critical care members from the pediatric and infant cardiac units; perfusionists; anesthesiologists; outside cardiologists; and many other divisions and departments involved in the care of our patients. We also have a monthly multidisciplinary morbidity and mortality conference.

The Divisions of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery at CUIMC are international leaders in congenital cardiac research initiatives and discoveries. Our team works collaboratively with many departments and divisions not only on the Columbia campus but with institutions throughout the world, making new discoveries and developing innovative technologies and therapies for children and adults born with cardiac defects, and infants and children with acquired heart disease.

Our program at Columbia and Morgan Stanley Childrens Hospital is a major center for clinical research involving congenital and pediatric cardiovascular diseases affecting fetuses, children, and adults. Each of our clinical subspecialty areas is actively involved in clinical and translational research protocols to advance the care and improve the lives of our patients with heart disease.

Our team currently participates in trials of: several different transcatheter devices; pharmaceuticals for patients with pulmonary hypertension; therapies for heart failure and cardiac transplantation; arrhythmia therapies and implantable devices; and quality outcomes and safety metrics registries.

We also conduct a range of translation and basic science research. In her zebra fish laboratory Kimara Targoff, MD, is making new discoveries relevant to fetal and neonatal cardiac pathology that may direct innovations in cardiac regenerative medicine.

Teresa Lee, MD, in collaboration with Masayuki Yazawa, PhD, in the Departments of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine and Pharmacology, is performing translational research using induced pluripotent stem cells as a way to model human disease and to study the functional implication of genetic variants discovered through whole exome sequencing.

We are developing tissue engineering technologies that could provide long-term treatment options for children who require valve replacement. Our goal is to develop valves that would function for a lifetime that would grow as the child grows to adulthood, eliminating the need for anticoagulation or anti-rejection medications.

Since its inception in the 1960s, the Division of Pediatric Cardiology has had a tradition of excellence in mentorship, education, and training for medical students, residents, fellows, and outside observers. Medical students and residents from around the world come to spend rotations or observerships with our team. They are able to observe inpatient rounds, outpatient general, and subspecialty clinics as well as diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and surgeries.

The Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship, under the direction of Julie Glickstein, MD, is one of the most highly sought after programs in the country. Our three-year, bi-campus fellowship program involves Morgan Stanley Childrens Hospital on the CUIMC campus and Komansky Childrens Hospital on the Weill Cornell Medicine campus. We generally accept five fellows per year, and frequently offer an advanced fellowship year in a subspecialty area such as non-invasive imaging, interventional cardiology, heart failure/transplantation, or pulmonary hypertension.

The first pediatric cardiologist to provide infants and children with specialized care at Columbia University and Babies Hospital was Sylvia Griffiths, MD, who joined the Columbia faculty in 1955. The Division of Pediatric Cardiology was established in the late 1960s under Welton M. Gersony, MD, who was the chief of the division for more than 30 years. During Dr. Gersony's tenure the first successful pediatric heart transplantation was performed here at Columbia in 1984. The first transcatheter pulmonary valve placement in New York state and greater tristate region was performed at Morgan Stanley Childrens Hospital. William Hellenbrand, MD, took over the leadership of the division in 2007. The division is currently led by Julie A. Vincent, MD, who has been chief since 2012.

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology is comprised of 37 full-time faculty members. These include specialists with advanced training in general/preventative cardiology, hyperlipidemia, advanced non-invasive imaging, diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization, electrophysiology and implantable devices, adult and pediatric pulmonary hypertension, pediatric heart failure and transplant, cardiac critical care, cardiopulmonary exercise physiology, cardiogenetics, general pediatrics, quality and safety outcomes and research.

Our team also includes 12 specialty trained nurses/nurse practitioners, three clinical research staff and four emeritus cardiologists who remain involved in our program. Finally, our team includes two US-trained pediatric cardiologists who are affiliates of Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital practicing in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE.

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Cardiology | Department of Pediatrics