The mission of the Fetal Cardiology Fellowship is to train future academic leaders in Fetal Cardiology by accomplishing the following:
- Bring together a multidisciplinary team that provides detailed evaluation, counseling, and management of high-risk pregnancies affected by congenital cardiac anomalies.
- Ensure that families receive the highest quality of care for congenital heart problems during pregnancy and after birth.
- Investigate and address potential disparities that exist in the prenatal detection of clinically significant congenital heart defects.
- Raise public awareness of prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart problems (CHD) and provide ongoing educational support to affected families in the community.
- Provide continuing education to sonographers, fellows, cardiologists, obstetricians, Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialists, and other allied health practitioners involved in the prenatal diagnosis and management of pregnancies affected by or at risk of fetal cardiac conditions.
Our Goals
Clinical Service
- Establish fetal cardiac rounds for a multidisciplinary team (bi-weekly).
- Organize referrals for 'second opinion' with known fetal CHD.
- Utilize 'patient navigator' to improve patient care.
- Develop protocols for pregnancy management accounting for other maternal and fetal complications.
Community Service
- Develop educational materials, including an web page for patients carrying fetuses with CHD.
- Collaborate with local CHD family support groups.
- Host events raising public awareness of the prenatal diagnosis of CHD (annually - February).
Research Directions
- Establish registry for CHD in our institute/Hampton Roads.
- Study disparities in the prenatal detection of CHD.
- Investigate outcomes in fetuses with CHD and fetal growth restriction (FGR).
- Develop checklist to optimize prenatal screening for CHD.
- Continue collaboration with GE/Cannon/SonoSim/VP on developing AI algorithms for prenatal detection of CHD and simulation platforms for training.
- Explore opportunities to increase funding for research activities.
Education
- Provide Continuing Medical Education courses with hands-on training for sonographer/fellows in the community.
- Create an online educational platform for fetal cardiology.
