Meet the teams: Centre for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease

Partnership and collaboration are at the heart of the vision for the Zayed Centre for Research by bringing together the collective expertise of GOSH and ICH. Together we are in a unique position to bring the discoveries made in the laboratory to the patients we see – and other children across the world.

Meet some of the teams who will be at the heart of the Zayed Centre for Research.

The GOSH Centre for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease specialises in the diagnosis, evaluation and management of young people with a range of inherited cardiomyopathies, arrhythmias and aortopathies. We also carry out clinical screening for children who are at risk of inheriting one of these conditions due to a known or suspected family history.

The team runs outpatient clinics at GOSH every day of the week, with over 5,500 individual clinic consultations each year. Each patient referred to the service is comprehensively assessed. A detailed family history is compiled and clinical tests are undertaken. Where appropriate, genetic testing may be carried out in our patients – the team has a dedicated geneticist and genetic counsellor to facilitate this process. Both diagnosed children and those undergoing screening for genetic heart disease are assessed on a regular basis in the outpatient clinics. Many diagnosed patients are managed using medication, but in some cases surgical interventions may be required.

Every weekday a different specialist outpatient clinic takes place. Patients undergo a range of clinical tests before review and consultation with the specialist doctors and nurses. Some families may be seen by a clinical psychologist, or by a genetic counsellor according to their individual needs. Any inpatients on the ward are also reviewed by the clinical team and plans are made for their on-going management. The specialist nurses will call families before they attend a clinic for the first time to gather relevant clinical information and to provide information and advice. Throughout the day, the team will also take numerous phone calls from families seeking advice about symptoms, medications and day-to-day life with an inherited heart condition.

The Inherited Cardiovascular Disease Team has expanded rapidly over the past ten years to become the largest comprehensive paediatric service for inherited cardiac conditions in Europe, providing evaluation and management of the full range of inherited cardiac conditions in children.

The team is truly multidisciplinary, with a geneticist, genetic counsellor and clinical psychologists working alongside specialist doctors and nurses. In addition, the team includes full-time members of research staff (the Paediatric Inherited Cardiovascular Diseases Research Group, part of the UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science) embedded within the clinical team who are actively involved in a range of research studies, including large international collaborations. These studies aim to improve understanding of inherited cardiac conditions in children and to find better ways of monitoring and treating our patient group.

Being based in the Zayed Centre for Research will bring together our office space, outpatient clinics and laboratories in one building, improving patient experience by allowing us to work more efficiently and enabling closer research collaborations with our UCL colleagues.