Building resilient heart center teams.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to move beyond measures to improve individual resilience but to focus on measures to achieve better team resilience. RECENT FINDINGS: The COVID pandemic, shortages of heath care workers, and subsequent viral resurgence in 2022 placed tremendous stress on pediatric healthcare systems. Much has been written about individual wellness, mindfulness, and strategies to be a more resilient individual. However, little has been written on the importance of team resilience. Resilient teams work together to overcome daily stressors and challenges. Although leaders must create and foster a collaborative culture to establish cohesive and resilient teams; it also requires tremendous institutional support. Four key factors have emerged with regards to successful team resilience: candor, humility, resourcefulness, and compassion and empathy. This article discusses the key elements required for resilient teams to not only survive but also to thrive. SUMMARY: Effective heart centers, like the symphony, are a collection of individuals all coming together to care for a child or create a singular piece of music. Heart centers without effective leaders will most certainly fail, but even with the most accomplished and passionate leaders, there must be administrative institutional support and a shared vision.

COVID-19-associated multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children presenting uniquely with sinus node dysfunction in the setting of shock.

SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease COVID-19, generally has a mild disease course in children. However, a severe post-infectious inflammatory process known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children has been observed in association with COVID-19. This inflammatory process is a result of an abnormal immune response with similar clinical features to Kawasaki disease. It is well established that multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is associated with myocardial dysfunction, coronary artery dilation or aneurysms, and occasionally arrhythmias. The most common electrocardiographic abnormalities seen include premature atrial or ventricular ectopy, variable degrees of atrioventricular block, and QTc prolongation, and rarely, haemodynamically significant arrhythmias necessitating extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support. However, presentation with fever, hypotension, and relative bradycardia with a left axis idioventricular rhythm has not been previously reported. We present a case of a young adolescent with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children with myocarditis and a profoundly inappropriate sinus node response to shock with complete resolution following intravenous immunoglobulin.

COVID-19 will forever change the landscape of telemedicine.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The COVID-19 pandemic has had unprecedented global effects, yet the rapid emergence of telehealth across the globe has allowed healthcare professionals to connect virtually with patients and families while following safe social distancing guidelines. Telehealth has been used relatively well in patients from remote regions with limited access to subspecialty healthcare providers. This article discusses novel ways of using telehealth during the current pandemic and measures that would need to be taken to sustain telehealth and teleconsultations. RECENT FINDINGS: Telehealth has expanded to outpatient pediatric cardiology clinics across the globe during the pandemic. Technological advancements in video conferencing and the abundance of readily available wearable devices have allowed cardiologists to establish a preliminary diagnosis and set forth a treatment plan. Additional support by insurance providers and relaxation of mandatory regulations by the government have allowed telehealth to succeed during the pandemic. Although many subdisciplines within pediatric cardiology can be easily adapted into a sustainable telehealth model, some unique patient interactions, such as fetal cardiology, exercise physiology, and echocardiograms cannot be done remotely. The field of telehealth medicine with HIPAA-compliant programs and both insurance and government support should remain in our armamentarium of available resources for all patients and families. SUMMARY: Although not unique to pediatric cardiology, telehealth has emerged as an avenue to perform an initial evaluation and even establish a care pathway for patients. It is well recognized that telehealth visits will not supplant all patient--physician interactions but is a very acceptable first step in the majority of cases and can often steer the patient to subsequently undergo more selective and streamlined care.