PICS~AIC

About PICS Tips and Tricks

Need a quick and handy review of a novel technique or rare intervention? Want to know how leaders in pediatric and congenital cardiac interventions would approach a specific type of case? The PICS “Tips & Tricks” section provides congenital interventional cardiologists with nuanced, “real world” techniques from experienced leaders in our field.

These vignettes highlight their approaches to performing specific procedures, dealing with unique (or common) medical conditions, and meeting challenges. Our contributors pay special attention to the practical aspects of performing procedures, managing difficult situations, and the potential pitfalls we all encounter.

Of course every patient is different, thus these vignettes do not constitute official guidelines or policies of the PICS Society. Rather, our goal is to provide a global forum to exchange lessons learned, what has worked and “expecting the unexpected” amongst our far-flung but tight-knit community.

Each topic is written by a key opinion leader with specific expertise in the procedures, devices, techniques and types of patient involved. We work hard to make these vignettes accessible and succinct with illustrative case examples and references to make this an educational platform useful to you the practicing interventionalist. We are confident PICS members will find this series to be helpful no matter their experience levels.

We would love to hear about YOUR tips & tricks! Have one you would like to contribute? Contact us personally or via membership@CHDinterventions.org

Thank you to all of our contributors and readers!

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Editors

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Gurumurthy Hiremath, MD, FPICS, FACC, FSCAI
Email: Hiremath@umn.edu

Dr. Gurumurthy Hiremath, MD, FPICS is Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital where he is director of the congenital cardiac catheterization laboratories and cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Dr. Hiremath completed General Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco. His research interests focus on working with industry to develop new intracardiac devices and improve understanding of the physiological effects of transcatheter interventions. He leads a national effort and a working group on the use of PV loops in congenital heart disease. He is actively involved in professional societies including PICS.

Shawn Batlivala, MD, MSCI, FPICS, FSCAI, FACC, FAAP
Email: sarosh.batlivala@cchmc.org

Shawn Batlivala, MD MSCI is a pediatric and congenital interventional cardiologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Batlivala completed General Cardiology fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital in 2012 and Interventional Cardiology fellowship at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in 2013. He then joined the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 2013 where he was Fellowship Program Director and then Interim Chief of Pediatric Cardiology in August 2017. He joined Cincinnati Children's Hospital in March 2018. Dr. Batlivala’s interests are in outcomes and novel therapies for congenital cardiac catheterization. In addition to his work with PICS, Dr. Batlivala is Director of Outcomes and Quality for the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children’s and he holds leadership roles in the Congenital Cardiac Research Collaborative (CCRC), Congenital Cardiac Catheterization Project on Outcomes (C3PO), Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Kamel Shibbani, MD
Email: kamel-shibbani@uiowa.edu

Kamel Shibbani, MD is an assistant professor of pediatric cardiology at the University of Iowa. He completed his general cardiology fellowship at the University of Iowa and his interventional cardiology training at UCSD. Dr. Shibbani's research background focused on genetics of congenital heart disease. Currently, he is focused on translational research and device development. He is an active member of the PICS Society.