Adult Congenital Heart Service

Our innovative approach

There are many ways Children’s Hospital Boston constantly improves care. Some are rooted in scientific research: Understanding diseases deeply—even at the cellular or molecular level—leads to new drugs and therapies. But some improvements arise from moments spent at the bedside, when clinicians see inadequate science or imperfect models of care, and decide to challenge the status quo.

This approach, which we broadly define as “clinical innovations,” often requires individual clinicians to think out of the box to develop entirely new tools or come up with inventive strategies. This creative form of innovation is the path by which many major improvements in care have been made.

Here are some of the ways innovators in the BACH program are developing novel approaches to improving care:

• BACH is one of the few centers in the U.S. where valves are being replaced through a catheter-based procedure rather than through open-heart surgery.
• Michael Landzberg, MD, led the research team that first demonstrated the benefit of oral endothelin antagonists in the care of individuals with Eisenmenger Sydnrome.
• Pedro del Nido, MD, is working with a team of engineers to develop an artificial pump for people who were born with a single functional ventricle.