Overview
The Division of Cardiology, part of the Heart Institute, provides comprehensive cardiac services and specialized care for infants, children and adolescents, as well as for some adult patients, with a history of congenital and acquired heart disease. Expert care is provided by the highly skilled and experienced cardiologists of Rady Children’s Specialists of San Diego.
Along with the Cardiovascular Surgery division, our program is a major referral center for Imperial, Riverside and Orange counties, as well as for Hawaii, New Mexico, Mexico and the Pacific Rim islands. We not only strive to provide the highest quality care for infants, children and adults born with congenital heart defects, but to advance the current knowledge and understanding of cardiovascular disease.
Our cardiac catheterization laboratory is state-of-the-art, enabling our doctors to perform procedures with less radiation and better visualization of the anatomy.
We also have a Cardiothoracic ICU, which offers highly specialized care for patients requiring cardiac services.
The expertise of Rady Children’s Heart team and cutting-edge technology helped keep Kupono alive. Read his amazing story.
The Division has an active research program as well, along with an ACGME-accredited fellowship in conjunction with UC San Diego.
Why Choose Rady Children’s?
- First in world to perform a nonsurgical, catheter-only procedure in patient with single-ventricle congenital heart disease.
- First in San Diego to have a 3-D Heart Modeling Program.
- Has the only two ABIM-certified adult congenital heart disease specialists in San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties. Learn more.
- One of the largest pediatric programs in the country for Kawasaki disease.
- One of the first pediatric centers in the country to participate in the Melody® Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve program, enabling patients to undergo minimally invasive heart valve replacement instead of open-heart surgery.
- Outcomes among the best in the nation for catheter ablation of arrhythmias.
- Named a California Children’s Services (CCS)-designated Center of Excellence, based on meeting strict quality outcomes criteria
Fetal Cardiology Program
The Fetal Cardiology Program focuses on the detection, evaluation and management of prenatal cardiovascular diseases/heart problems.
Your obstetrician or perinatologist may refer you to our Fetal Cardiology program for one of the following reasons:
- Concern about a congenital heart defect (an abnormality of the heart detected during a routine ultrasound examination)
- Concern about the heart function in the fetus
- Detection of an irregular heartbeat in the fetus
- Presence of other congenital anomalies, which are associated with heart defects/heart problems
- Family history of congenital heart defects