HM Hospitals creates its first Congenital Heart Disease Unit

Congenital heart defects are among the most frequent congenital defects among newborns. In Catalonia, nearly 600 babies are born each year with some type of malformation of the heart or blood vessels. It is estimated that one in every hundred children presents some cardiovascular alteration from birth. In some cases, these health problems can also accompany them throughout adult life and compromise their physical capacity and quality of life.

Early detection, whether through ultrasounds during pregnancy or pediatric check-ups in the first years of life, is key to improving patients' prognosis. So are specialized treatments, therapeutic innovations, and technological advances applied to cardiovascular medicine. Hence the importance of seeking the care of specialists and centers that have the best medical and technological resources.

HM Hospitales is one of the reference healthcare groups in the approach to heart diseases. Now, the group has launched its first Congenital Heart Disease Unit in Barcelona, a highly specialized service led by Dr. Pedro Betrián, one of the country's leading experts in the treatment of these diseases.

The new unit brings together the resources and technology of the HM CIEC Barcelona Comprehensive Cardiovascular Diseases Centre, located at HM Nou Delfos Hospital, and the HM Nens Pediatric Hospital. This model allows for a care pathway that integrates the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of congenital heart diseases, for both pediatric patients and adolescents and adults, ensuring continuous care at all stages of their lives.

A first-class service

The Congenital Heart Disease Unit is a highly specialized service that brings together top-level experts and the most advanced therapeutic techniques to offer comprehensive care to people living with a heart disease from birth. The unit is born with the aim of becoming a reference center in Catalonia and at a state level in the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of these pathologies.

Its catalog of services includes the most advanced specific hemodynamic procedures, such as catheter-based valve implants, closure of cardiac defects with highly biocompatible devices, or catheter-based electrocautery. These are minimally invasive interventions that expand the therapeutic options for patients. With them, different interventions that previously required open surgery can be resolved through catheterization, thereby reducing the impact on the patient and the risk of complications, and promoting a faster recovery.

An integral model

Not all cases are equally serious, but practically all these people affected by these types of pathologies require lifelong medical care and follow-up to prevent and treat the effects of this congenital heart disease. About 10,000 Catalan adults live with this condition, 30% of whom have severe forms of the pathology.

Hence the need to create a superspecialty with highly qualified teams, specific resources, and multidisciplinary coordination. The Congenital Heart Disease Unit allows HM Hospitals to concentrate clinical experience, case volume, and specialized technology in the field of congenital heart diseases, and to ensure diagnosis and follow-up in children and adolescents.

The Pediatric Cardiology Service of the HM Nens Hospital, directed by Dr. José Manuel Siurana, is responsible for the detection, diagnosis, and follow-up of congenital heart diseases in children and adolescents. Treatments and interventional procedures are carried out at the HM CIEC Barcelona Integrated Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, located at HM Nou Delfos Hospital, which has an exclusive advanced state-of-the-art Hemodynamics room equipped with radiation reduction systems, intracardiac echocardiography, and 3D navigation for complex procedures.

This networked care model allows for comprehensive, continuous, and highly specialized care throughout all stages of life, including the follow-up of adult patients by a multidisciplinary team. Furthermore, it favors better coordination between specialists, avoids unnecessary referrals, and guarantees more efficient, personalized care centered on the needs of each patient.

A strategic project in Catalonia 

With the launch of this Unit, HM Hospitales reinforces its commitment to the development of high-complexity programs in Barcelona and consolidates a healthcare model based on clinical excellence, innovation, and the integration of specialties.

This advance is part of the group's sustained growth in Catalonia, where it already has a healthcare network formed by the HM Nou Delfos, HM Sant Jordi, and HM Nens hospitals, as well as several polyclinics, all equipped with state-of-the-art technology and connected within the group's healthcare model. In total, the group has 50 healthcare centers: 24 hospitals; 3 comprehensive centers for high specialization in oncology, cardiology, and neurosciences; 5 centers specializing in reproductive medicine, eye health, oral health, aesthetic medicine and plastic surgery, and personalized early prevention, in addition to 18 polyclinics.

Directed by doctors and with 100% national capital, HM Hospitales is the leading private hospital group at a national level, with 7,500 professionals who concentrate their efforts on offering quality and innovative medicine focused on the care of the health and well-being of its patients and their families.