Mayo Clinic, Children’s Minnesota announce rare congenital heart defect collaboration

Dec 5, 2017 | Suzanne Ferguson | @suzannerferguson

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ROCHESTER, Minn.— Mayo Clinic’s Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and Children’s Minnesota are collaborating to prevent heart failure for hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare and complex form of congenital heart disease in which the left side of a child's heart is severely underdeveloped.

“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Children’s Minnesota, because it brings new research right to the patients,” says Timothy Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., director, Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. “By being a part of the hypoplastic left heart syndrome consortium, Children’s Minnesota is now part of a national network that includes Mayo Clinic and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. It means that individuals with hypoplastic left heart syndrome now have more options when it comes to participating in groundbreaking clinical trials and other hypoplastic left heart syndrome research.”

The Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) is a collaborative network of specialists bonded by the vision of delaying or preventing heart failure for individuals affected by congenital heart defects including HLHS. The specialized team is addressing the various aspects of these defects by using research and clinical strategies ranging from basic science to diagnostic imaging to regenerative therapies.