Name of Program: Children’s Heart and Development Group (PI Beatrice Latal) /Heart and Brain Research Group (PI Walter Knirsch)
Year Program Established: 2004
Program Leader: Beatrice Latal
Key Staff and Specialties: Beatrice Latal, Melanie Ehrler, Alenka Schmid, Flavia Wehrle, Susanne Polentarutti (Child Development Center), Walter Knirsch, Emanuela Valsangiacomo and Oliver Kretschmar (Department of Cardiology), Cornelia Hagmann (Department of Neonatology), Andras Jakab, Ruth Tuura, Raimund Kottke (MR Center), Mattias Greutmann, Angela Oxenius, (Cardiology University Hospital Zurich).
Age Range of Patients Served: 0-16 years
Description of Outpatient Program(s): Outpatient program follows all children operated at the University Hospital Zurich within the first year of life until school-age
Description of research or QI projects in cardiac neurodevelopment – undergoing or accomplished:
- Early motor intervention (Elena Mitteregger/Beatrice Latal)
- Executive function and brain imaging in adolescents with CHD: a window for intervention (“Teenheart” Beatrice Latal, Ruth Tuura)
- Executive function intervention in children with CHD (“Teenheart-Intervention: E-Fit” Beatrice Latal, Ruth Tuura)
- Long-term outcome prediction using neonatal MRI (Co-PI Beatrice Latal/Walter Knirsch)
- Executive function and brain imaging in adults with CHD (Beatrice Latal, Mattian Greutmann)
Unique features and strengths of this program: Longitudinal cohorts until adulthood using comprehensive developmental and behavioral assessment tests, extensive clinical experience in the neurodevelopment impairment spectrum found in children with CHD, parental website (https://www.herzkids.ch), establishment of a national neurodevelopmental outcome register (ORCHID), advanced neuroimaging expertise particularly for fetal analyses.