New dimension in cardiac care

AHS trains next generation of Canadian cardiologists on latest ultrasound technology

Alberta Health Services is taking a leadership role in training the next generation of Canadian cardiologists on the latest ultrasound technology.

More than 20 physicians from across Canada, all training to become pediatric cardiologists, gathered at Alberta Children’s Hospital in early July for a three-day course on the use of 3D Echo, an ultrasound machine that’s revolutionizing care for children with serious, congenital heart problems.

The technology provides vivid, three-dimensional images of a child’s heart that allow surgeons to better plan for cardiac surgery. The machine arrived at Calgary’s Alberta Children’s Hospital and Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Hospital a year ago — and Alberta remains the only province that uses 3D Echo in clinical practice.

“The 3D-like images can be rotated, so the doctor can look at the image from the perspective of where he does the surgery and understand what exactly he is going to encounter before he even goes in to repair the heart,” says Dr. Frank Dicke, division chief of pediatric cardiology at the Alberta Children’s Hospital.

“It’s just fantastic technology that will help us improve our surgical outcomes.”

Dicke says outcomes can be improved because the technology often reduces surgical time.

“Now the surgeon doesn’t have to figure out what’s going on once he’s in there,” says Dicke.  “Surgeons don’t like surprises. Prolonged surgery is not a good thing for the health of the patient. The faster surgery is, the better it is for recovery.”

Dr. Jeffrey Smallhorn, head of echocardiography at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, is a world leader in the use of this technology. He led the course and was joined by other 3D Echo experts from Calgary, Toronto and London, England. The trainees hailed from Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver.

“This is a great opportunity,” says trainee Joe Pagano of Edmonton. “3D Echo is becoming more common in clinical practice but it’s still not well understood by many people. To be able to see it here and have it explained by these world-renowned experts is a unique opportunity.”

Dicke says survival rates for kids with serious heart conditions have gone from virtually nil in the 1930s to about 30 per cent in the mid-1990s.

Today, those rates are about 90 per cent.

“That is in large part due to this kind of technology and how it enhances our ability to make the correct diagnosis, to understand the anatomy and to translate all that into a surgical plan,” says Dicke.

“All of those things are helping us provide better care…. If you’re going to have top-level care, this is technology that needs to be there.”