Division of Pediatric Cardiology

The Children's Heart Center (CHC) is the only group in Mississippi to offer all health-related services to patients with congenital heart disease. The CHC consists of 15 pediatric cardiologists representing all the clinical subspecialties of pediatric cardiology. The center also has two congenital heart surgeons, four cardiac intensivists, two pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists, and several nurse practitioners.

The CHC serves approximately 400 inpatients, 300 CICU patients, 200 inpatient consultations, and 6,500 outpatient encounters each year. The CHC performs approximately 400 congenital heart surgeries, including 220 on cardiopulmonary bypass, as well as 330 catheterizations and 150 electrophysiology procedures as well. We also perform 7,000 ECGs and 10,000 echocardiograms, including fetal echocardiograms, each year. 

The CHC operates within Children's of Mississippi, a hospital of the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). 

We share the same vision as the UMMC Department of Pediatrics: our promise to Mississippi is to improve the health of children and adults with congenital heart disease by providing world-class care, educating tomorrow's medical leaders, and promoting discovery and innovation.

In terms of care, our faculty trained in premier programs from around the world. We provide complete and comprehensive care for all forms of congenital and acquired heart disease. This includes diagnosis of heart defects in fetuses to performing complex interventions on adults with congenital heart disease and heart transplantation for infants, children and adolescents. The cardiac catheterization laboratory offers all state of the art interventions including percutaneous valve implantation and the electrophysiology laboratory performs all ablation procedures, some without any radiation exposure to the patient.

Development of the region's premier congenital heart center, including a pediatric cardiology training program, has greatly improved access to quality health care for our state's children, many of whom had to travel out-of-state for medical care prior to the inception of the UMMC CHC. And we have analyzed and published our outcomes and we are  on par with or  better than the nation's highest standards of care. In addition to our Congenital Heart Disease service line, we are working to improve the health of all the children of Mississippi with preventative care including the evaluation and treatment of children with obesity, hypertension and dyslipidemias.

Regarding education, since 2015 we have had approval from the American College of Graduate Medical Education to train physicians in pediatric cardiology; this was the first pediatric cardiology training program in Mississippi's history. Because of its success, the ACGME-approved program is now expanding to a total of six fellows. Our faculty also works with and teaches the pediatric residents and medical students of UMMC. Many CHC staff members hold active leadership positions in multiple professional societies including the American College of Cardiology, American Academy of Pediatrics, Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions, and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. In those roles, our faculty help develop programs to educate the nations' subspecialists.

CHC staff members are also very active researchers to promote discovery. We created a CHC research committee in 2012 which has mentored multiple faculty members and produced numerous publications and professional meeting presentations. We also have an approved animal laboratory with ongoing research activities. And many of our faculty serve as editors for multiple research publications and are also invited to serve as leaders during national medical conferences.

As an academic medical center we are fully dedicated to furthering our vision above. Contact us for more information.

William Moskowitz, MD
Professor of Pediatrics
Chief, Division Pediatric Cardiology
Department of Pediatrics
Co-Director, Children's Heart Center