Enhanced Congenital Heart Disease Care Leads to Better Patient Outcomes & More Expectation from Technology

Recent innovation has prompted astonishing enhancements in care for individuals diagnosed to have congenital heart disease.

Congenital heart disease is a term that covers a broad scope of heart defects that exist at birth—a congenital heart defect is essentially a birth defect.

At times, the deformity is extreme and hazardous. It might keep the heart from working adequately and could require complex clinical interventions—including open-heart surgery—to increase the possibility of survival. In other cases, the deformity may go undetected for a considerable length of time and the person may not demonstrate symptoms of heart disease until adolescence or even adulthood.

Advances in surgical and non-surgical care for congenital heart disease enables youngsters and grown-ups with congenital heart illness to live longer, healthier lives. We asked Dr. Ross Ungerleider to disclose more about the advances and changes that are progressing in congenital heart disease management.

Dr. Ross Ungerleider is a distinguished name in the realm of innovation technology for congenital heart disease care. He is the pioneer who introduced intraoperative echocardiography for congenital heart repair in 1988, which has now become a standard of care in the healthcare setting.

Dr. Ungerleider received his surgical training at Duke University Medical Center, where he served on the faculty for 15 years, rising to the level of the tenured professor. After serving for nearly 25 years at Duke, he took on leadership positions at Oregon Health & Science University (Portland, OR), Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH), Wake Forest Baptist Health (Winston Salem, NC) and Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi, TX.

To date, Dr. Ungerleider has worked as Congenital Heart Surgeon for 34 years, operating on over 7,000 patients. He is also the Editor of two major textbooks, the recent one of which is ‘Critical Heart Disease in Infants and Children,’ 3rd edition published in 2019.

Ross Ungerleider is an active member of the American Surgical Association, American College of Surgeons, American Association for Thoracic Surgery and Southern Surgical Association, Southern Thoracic Surgical Association (for which he was elected as president in 2006) and founding board member of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery special certification for congenital heart surgeons. Known as the US leading heart surgeon, Dr. Ross Ungerleider was awarded the ‘Saving Tiny Hearts Hero Award’ in 2008, admiring his remarkable contribution to the field of congenital heart disease care management.

Historically, a diagnosis of congenital heart disease implied a shorter life expectancy, however in recent decades, that expectation has changed,  thanks to doctors like Ross Ungerleider. Specialists have kept on propelling the field, prompting better results for patients.

“There have been astonishing enhancements in the number of babies and infants with congenital heart disease who now survive (with newly emerging and improving therapies) to adulthood,” Dr. Ungerleider said.

The emphasis for managing congenital heart disease has transformed from trying to achieve early to survival for patients to now focusing on how to help patients live a high quality life. This includes the ability to use advances in technology to provide some newborns and infants with critical congenital heart disease with complete surgical repair of their defects with a single operation (as opposed to multiple operations staged over several years). For infants who require multiple operations, advances in understanding how to best provide them with repair has also produced enhancements to the timing and nature of those procedures which also serve to provide improved ultimate outcomes.  Medical scientists are likewise directing examinations on molecular and cell-based treatments that could forestall cardiovascular harm or recuperate hearts with fewer surgeries.

“Since we can look at the impact of congenital heart disease at the molecular level, our target now moves to design new medicines that might prevent congenital heart disease from occurring or alter its presentation to be less serious,” Dr. Ungerleider said.

The field is additionally advancing the nature of mechanical support that can improve survival for patients as their hearts recover following surgery, or that can support patients while they await organs for transplant.

Congenital heart disease is not, at this point, only a pediatric disorder.

With more Congenital heart disease patients surviving into adulthood and having longer lives with improved quality, the field has adjusted quickly to address patients’ evolving needs.

“Regardless of whether we detect congenital heart disease in infants and effectively fix it, congenital heart disease is an ailment that is never fully cured in the usual sense. It requires constant health management,” says Dr. Ungerleider.

Congenital heart disease continues to have influence for pateints all the way through adulthood. Even the individuals who have less critical forms of congenital heart disease require long term surveillance and care.

Innovation has been successful in providing positive outcomes among congenital heart disease patients. Yet, the positive results have brought forth another demand. It has ignited the need for innovation to sustain the quality of life among congenital heart disease patients as they age and create meaningful adult lives.