Parents can accompany their children to the operating rooms and stay with them until they are asleep. Babies Hospital is a world referral center for complex pediatric heart problems. Welton Gersony, M.D., is director of pediatric cardiology. A young girl, whose arrhythmia was cured by radiofrequency ablation, undergoes a stress test during a check-up. We rank ninth in the nation among medical schools in receipt of Government funds for medical research.
Clinical trials can be of great value to patients.
Multiple programs in congenital heart disease are ongoing in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology. The Columbia-Presbyterian Heart Institute is a leader in the diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm disturbances and conduction disorders. James Reiffel, M.D., discusses an electrophysiology procedure with a patient. Breakthrough Research Researchers at the Heart Institute are conducting correlation studies in our catheterization and imaging facilities to ascertain which of the various diagnosis and treatment modalities are least invasive and most effective. Investigators are determining whether Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a better noninvasive means than aortograms or peripheral angiograms for assessing the velocity of blood flow through individual arteries.