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Inova Health System and Children's National Join Forces to Enhance Pediatric Cardiovascular Care

Falls Church, VA — Inova Health System and Children’s National Health System today announced  a collaborative effort to improve the quality and availability of comprehensive cardiovascular care for children in Northern Virginia and throughout the greater DC region, pledging to  significantly enhance value, outcomes, access and experience for parents and children with cardiac diseases.  

Both programs have long histories in providing complex cardiac surgical care to the tiniest of patients. In recent years, the Inova Children’s program has been ranked among the nation’s top 50 by U.S. & World Report.  Children’s National is currently ranked in the Top 20 nationwide for Pediatric Cardiology & Heart Surgery. 

The collaboration was launched as Richard Jonas, MD, Co-Director of Children’s National Heart Institute and Chief of Cardiac Surgery, and Lucas Collazo, MD, Director of the Inova Children’s Heart Program, partnered to successfully perform pediatric cardiac surgery at Inova Children’s Hospital in Falls Church, VA. Going forward, additional members of Children’s National multi-disciplinary cardiac team will join Inova Children’s Hospital’s team of experts to perform a wide range of pediatric cardiac procedures.  The Children’s National Heart Institute team will continue all services at its current locations in the metro DC region, including cardiac transplantation for children at the hospital’s main campus.

“Substantial, evidence-based research acknowledges that there is a relationship between the volume of pediatric cardiovascular surgical patients treated in a center or health system, and the outcomes of these patients,” said Christopher O’Connor, MD, Chief Executive Officer, Inova Heart and Vascular Institute.  “We welcome the Children’s National team to Inova as the first step in the creation of a joint pediatric cardiovascular center of excellence at our institutions. We look forward to working together.”

”This collaboration will help to advance pediatric cardiac care at both of our organizations, and benefit children in Virginia and throughout our region,” stated David Wessel, MD, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer of Children’s National Health System. “We are excited to be working with the Inova team to help children grow up stronger”.

“Learning that your child has a heart condition is frightening and stressful,” noted Dr. Jonas.   “I want to assure families that we are committed to working together to bring our collective skill and experience to their children’s care and to delivering the best quality outcomes.”

“I’m excited to work with my colleagues at Children’s National to create a better overall system of care for the children and families that we serve,” added Dr. Collazo.

Contact: Amy Goodwin at 202-476-4500


About Inova Children’s Hospital

Inova Children’s Hospital is Northern Virginia’s only children’s hospital, located on Inova Fairfax Medical Campus. The 226-bed, full service children’s hospital offers a complete range in services in more than 40 specialties. The hospital serves as Northern Virginia’s tertiary pediatric referral center; home to its only Level I Trauma Center, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, and Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Through the Inova Translational Medicine Institute, Inova Children’s Hospital is providing personalized medicine to the children of our region, and investigating the genomic reasons behind pediatric disease.  The hospital is consistently listed among U.S. News & World Report’s Best Children’s Hospitals in the nation. Inova Children’s Hospital is part of Inova, a not-for-profit healthcare system based in Northern Virginia that serves more than 2 million people each year from throughout the Washington, DC metro area and beyond. Inova is a comprehensive network of hospitals, outpatient facilities, primary and specialty care practices and health and wellness initiatives.

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