The UF Health Congenital Heart Center is now offering telehealth outpatient appointments on a case-by-case basis. Please contact your provider to schedule an appointment and they will determine if a telehealth visit is right for you. Visit our telehealth section for assistance in how to prepare for and connect to a scheduled appointment.
Our faculty and clinical staff provide comprehensive cardiac care services to children and adults of all ages who have congenital and acquired heart disease. We are dedicated to providing our pediatric and adult heart patients with a safe, educational, healing environment that puts them and their families first.
The UF Health Congenital Heart Center specializes in:
As part of the world-renowned UF Academic Health Center, we have ready access to specialists in obstetrics, neonatology, genetics, hematology, pharmacology, endocrinology, neurology, gastroenterology, pulmonology and many other pediatric medical specialties.
We do our very best to make your experience as comfortable as possible and provide you with the information you need about your child’s or your diagnosis so you can be as knowledgeable as possible to make informed decisions about care and treatment plans. We strongly encourage you to ask questions, and if you have any concerns or any poor experiences, please don’t hesitate to tell us.
The UF Health Congenital Heart Center provides inpatient services for those patients who need extended care.
As the highest ranked pediatric cardiology and heart surgery program in Florida, and among the nation’s best, the UF Health Congenital Heart Center has the most complex case mix of all Florida congenital heart programs, caring for some of the sickest children in the southeastern United States.
Our team of cardiovascular surgeons performs almost 300 congenital heart cases each year at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital, from straightforward atrial septal defect closures, to complex operations such as the arterial switch, to high-risk surgeries such as the Norwood.
Our surgeons are recognized for their expertise in treating:
In the event that your child’s heart defect could harm their long-term health, corrective surgery may be necessary. There are many types of heart defects and surgical treatments. Sometimes surgery is needed immediately after birth, and other times it can be delayed for months or years. Regardless of when the surgery takes place, it is a big life adjustment for parents and children.
To make the pediatric heart surgery experience easier, parents should take care to make the hospital stay as comfortable as possible for the child. Placing familiar items like toys and pictures of the family in the hospital room and visiting as much as possible will make the child feel right at home. Speaking to the physicians about the child’s particular quirks and special needs will give the medical staff the best tools for taking special care of the child when parents are not present.
During surgery recovery, parents will notice a change in the child’s behavior and temperament. The child will be in pain and will find doing certain things uncomfortable. The parent’s job is to ease their pain as much as possible by learning how to hold and interact with the child in a soothing and pain-free way.
Our Adult Congenital Heart Program offers the latest technologies performed by highly trained interventional cardiologists.
The UF Health Congenital Heart Center supports a monthly clinic for patients who have cardiomyopathy and heart failure.
Our Noninvasive Cardiac Imaging Laboratory has the latest in technology, including echo machines, stress laboratory, echo…
