As pediatric congenital heart patients age out, where do they go?

With the growing number of pediatric congenital heart patients growing up thanks to ever improving medical care, Dr. Scott Pilgrim takes us inside one of the few programs in the nation that bridges the gap to adult care without missing a beat.

Meet the speaker

Meet Dr. Pilgrim

Related information

Cook Children's Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program

Adult Congenital Heart Disease Conditions

Cook Children's Heart Center Specialty Programs

Cook Children’s Heart Center

Coming home: nurse returns to Cook Children’s for open heart surgery

Diving heart first

Heart-to-heart. Mother and daughter share the same cardiologist

Transcript

00:00:02

Host 

Hello and welcome to Cook Children's Doc Talk. Today we're talking with Dr. Scott Pilgrim, who is the medical director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease program here at Cook Children's. Dr. Pilgrim is board-certified in pediatrics, internal medicine, pediatric cardiology and adult congenital cardiology. Prior to coming to Cook Children's, Dr. Pilgrim founded the adult congenital heart disease program at the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center in Long Island. Today, under his leadership, the Adult Congenital Heart Disease program at Cook Children's Medical Center has shown tremendous growth with over 500 adult visits every year. Welcome Dr. Pilgrim.

00:00:42

Dr. Pilgrim 

Thank you.

00:00:43

Host 

So growing up with a sister who had heart surgery as a child had a major influence in your life, and ultimately led you to your role here at Cook Children's as medical director of the ACHD program, compared to many other cardiac specialties, adult congenital as a specialty is relatively new, can you give us a little history.

00:01:03

Dr. Pilgrim 

So, as you mentioned, my sister was born with a congenital heart disease. And so growing up with this in my family, it became of interest to me at a very young age. But as a field, congenital heart disease is something that has been around obviously, for several decades, this field of adult congenital heart disease has grown primarily because of the success stories that we've had in pediatric cardiology, namely, the surgical outcomes and the longevity of patients related to improved surgical care, improved surgical technique, you know, recognizing disease, early on fetal diagnosis, and so on and so forth. And so the incidence of congenital heart disease really hasn't changed. But the lifespan of individuals growing up with congenital heart disease has tremendously improved. And so when we think about the growth of adult congenital heart disease in the country, it really has grown out of necessity, because these kids are now growing up and becoming adults. In fact, the number of adults with congenital heart disease now far outweighs the number of children with congenital heart disease in the United States, almost to a 60-40 split. That care gap that...