Episode 57: Innovating Cardiac Care for Our Tiniest Patients

Around 40,000 babies each year in the United States are born with a significant congenital heart condition. About one in four of these babies has a critical congenital heart defect that requires immediate surgical or medical intervention within the first year of life. OSF Innovation is helping surgeons at OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois find new ways to bring hope for the smallest patients.

Join us as we discuss the work of OSF pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon Harma Turbendian, MD, who is dedicated to improving care for children with complex heart defects by advancing novel, research-driven surgical approaches. He is working on two concepts. One involves refining the Fontan procedure by incorporating a partial heart transplant to create a pulsatile conduit that could improve blood flow and reduce venous congestion. He’s also working to develop a heart simulator powered by artificial muscle technology. This device aims to better replicate the beating of a human heart, offering a more realistic and effective training tool for device testing, procedure simulation and teaching.

Host Shelli Dankoff chats with Dr. Turbendian about the future of these innovations and the importance of collaboration within and outside of OSF to bring new concepts like these to life.

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