Nicklaus Children's Hospital Heart Program Hosts National Conference on 'Sudden Death in the Young'

Published on: 02/22/2016
The Heart Program at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, part of Miami Children’s Health System, is hosting “Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome and Other Causes of Sudden Death in the Young: The Fouad Mobassaleh Memorial Symposium” February 19 to 20 at the Miami Marriot Biscayne Bay. The conference is sponsored by the family of Fouad Mobassaleh, a young man who died tragically of a heart rhythm condition, and focuses on the challenges facing the medical community in addressing sudden cardiac death in young people.

The conference, to be attended by pediatric cardiologists from throughout North America, will focus on identification and treatment of medical conditions that can lead to sudden cardiac death in children and teens. Every three days in the U.S. a teen athlete dies of sudden cardiac death. Often the first symptom of a heart condition in these otherwise healthy young people is sudden cardiac death. Many potentially fatal heart conditions can be identified by an ECG (electrocardiogram), though ECGs are not uniformly required for participation in youth sports.

Focuses of the conference will include Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a condition that can lead to sudden death, benefits of cardiopulmonary exercise testing, ECG criteria in screening, a discussion of the use of genetic testing, development of clinic for survivors of sudden cardiac arrhythmia, recognition of sudden and serious arrhythmia, use of pacemakers and more.

Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Heart Program faculty include:
  • Michael Ackerman, MD, PhD,  Director Long QT syndrome Genetic Heat Rhythm Clinic and the Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory, Mayo Clinic
  • Dominic Abrams, MBBS, Director Inherited Cardiac Arrhythmias Program, Boston Children’s Hospital
  • Anjan Batra, MD, Vice-chair, Department of Pediatrics and Chief, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, University of California Irvine
  • Stuart Berger, MD, Chief, Pediatric Cardiology, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA
  • Woodrow Benson, MD, PhD, Director Congenital and Pediatric Cardiac Research, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
  • Randall M. Bryant, MD, Interventional Electrophysiologist, Wolfson Children’s Hospital, University of Florida
  • Christine Chiu-Man, MSC, Team Leader, Electrophysiology Division, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario
  • Mitchell Cohen, MD, Co-director Phoenix Children’s Heart Center and Program Director, CHC Research & Education, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix, AZ
  • Jane Crosson, MD, Director Pediatric Electrophysiology and Adult Congenital heart Disease, Bloomberg Children’s Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD
  • Brynn Dechert-Crooks, CPNP, Electrophysiology Nurse Practitioner, Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, Palo Alto, CA
  • Christopher Erickson, MD, Director Electrophysiology and Pacing, Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, University of Nebraska Medical Center and Creighton University Medical Center, Omaha, NE
  • Harlie Ferguson, St. Jude Medical and Ambassador of IBHRE
  • Peter Fischbach, MD, Chief Academic Officer, Children’s Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Program, Sibley Heart Center Cardiology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA
  • Richard Friedman, MD, MBA, Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, Cohen Children’s Medical Center and Long Island Jewish School of Medicine, New Hyde Park, NY
  • Debra Hanisch, CPNP, Electrophysiology Nurse Practitioner, Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, Palo Alto, CA
  • Salim Idriss, MD, PhD, BME, Director Pediatric Electrophysiology, Duke University, Durham, NC
  • Narendra Kini, MD, Chief Executive Officer, Miami Children’s Health System, Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Florida International University, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
  • Rachel Lampert, MD, Electrophysiology and Arrhythmia Service, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT
  • Ian Law, MD, Director, Pediatric Electrophysiology, University of Iowa School of Medicine, Iowa City, IA
  • Timothy Paterick, MD, JD, MBA, Cardiologist and Professor of medicine, University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL
  • John Papagiannis, MD, Director Electrophysiology, Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO
  • Elizabeth Saarel, MD, Ronald and Helen Ross Distinguished Chair, Pediatric Cardiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
  • Shubhayan Sanatani, MD, Division Head, Pediatric Cardiology and Medical Director, BCCH Heart Centre, British Columbia Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC
  • Maully Shah, MBBS, Director Electrophysiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Michael Silka, MD, Chief Pediatric Cardiology, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
  • Paul Stephens, exercise physiologist, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Ming-Lon Young, MD, Director Electrophysiology, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital
  • Frank Zimmerman, MD, Director Electrophysiology, Hope Children’s Hospital, Oak Lawn, IL
 
Miami Children's Health System is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians
About Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Where Children Matter Most (2024)

Founded in 1950 by Variety Clubs International, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital is South Florida’s only licensed specialty hospital exclusively for children, with approximately 850 attending physicians, including more than 500 pediatric subspecialists. The 307-bed hospital is renowned for excellence in all aspects of pediatric medicine with many specialty programs routinely ranked among the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report since 2008. The hospital is also home to the largest pediatric teaching program in the southeastern United States and since 2003 has been designated an American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet facility, the nursing profession’s most prestigious institutional honor. For more information, please visit www.nicklauschildrens.org.

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