AKRON, Ohio – Akron Children’s Hospital is joining forces with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to provide complex care in pediatric cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery.
Akron Children’s and Cincinnati Children’s have partnered for over a decade to jointly care for children and teens in need of kidney transplants. In April 2024, the two organizations expanded their collaboration to include pediatric specialties in otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat), hepatology (liver disease) and bone marrow transplants. Cardiology is now the fifth medical specialty in which the two systems have joined forces.
The pediatric heart collaboration “essentially gives patient families a built-in second opinion with dozens of pediatric cardiologists and pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons,” said Dr. John Lane, director of pediatric cardiology at Akron Children’s.
“The teams from both Akron Children’s and Cincinnati Children’s will meet regularly to discuss cases and collaborate on treatment plans,” he said. “This includes cases where children are receiving new heart-related diagnoses as well as when parents in our Maternal-Fetal Medicine Center learn a congenital heart defect has been detected in their unborn child.”
According to Dr. Robert Stewart, director of cardiothoracic surgery at Akron Children’s, anything above and beyond Akron Children’s surgical scope, such as a child diagnosed with a rare, complex congenital heart defect, would have the option of having that surgery at Cincinnati Children’s, with all follow-up care provided by the cardiologists and nurses in Akron Children’s network.
“Akron Children’s and Cincinnati Children’s are two independent health systems, entirely devoted to pediatrics,” Stewart said. “We share similar missions and, while very few patients will need to travel, there will be many benefits for our teams and patients in collaborating on cases and sharing information.”
Dr. David Morales, director of cardiothoracic surgery at Cincinnati Children’s and executive co-director of its Heart Institute, said the collaboration will bring world-class congenital heart surgery and cardiac care closer to home for patients and families in the Akron area.
“Cincinnati Children’s offers innovative procedures such as complex biventricular repairs, total artificial heart implantation and multi-organ transplantation,” Morales said. “This collaboration will increase access to such rare procedures for patients of Akron Children’s.”