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Mayo Clinic, CHOP to collaborate on research, treatment for rare congenital heart disease
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Mayo Clinic’s Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome is collaborating with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to share resources and innovate treatments for hypoplastic left heart syndrome, according to a press release.
Mayo Clinic hopes to collaborate with other centers, forming a consortium of 5 to 7 centers by the end of the year.
“What is unique about this collaboration is that it allows members, like Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, around the nation to be integrated into the research foundation that we have here at Mayo Clinic and it allows them to literally financially invest within the program so that we can have a shared responsibility for the successes of the program,” Timothy Nelson, MD, PhD, director of Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, told Cardiology Today. “This unique structure really allows us to bring a greater attention and a greater focus to this rare congenital heart disease.”
Mayo Clinic has focused on regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy to treat hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Through this collaboration, the centers will be able to access these innovations, share resources and become local centers of excellence for treating this rare disorder.
“Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has a long-standing history of caring for children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and this exciting collaboration with Mayo Clinic offers promising opportunities to develop new ways to give patients an even better quality of life,” Robert Shaddy, MD, chief of cardiology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said the release.
“We think [the collaboration] will dramatically accelerate and build the resources and the technology that we can focus on rare congenital heart disease,” Nelson said in an interview. “It’s not easy to get corporate dollars or large dollars focusing on such a rare pediatric condition and by doing it in this unique structure and by sharing our knowledge with regional centers of excellence, it allows us to accelerate by engaging more patients and sharing more resources.”
For more information:
Timothy Nelson, MD, PhD, can be reached at nelson.timothy@mayo.edu.