Rohan Kumthekar, MD, Pediatric Cardiology Fellow at Children’s National Health System, will receive the award.
NORTHBROOK, Ill., September 16, 2019 – The winner of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2019 Pediatric Cardiology Research Fellowship Award, supported by The Children’s Heart Foundation, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to funding congenital heart defect (CHD) research, has been selected.
Rohan Kumthekar, MD, Pediatric Cardiology Fellow at Children’s National Health System, will receive the award, which is made possible by an educational grant from The Children’s Heart Foundation. The award provides research support for an individual who has demonstrated aptitude for basic science or clinical science research during their pediatric cardiology fellowship.
Kumthekar’s research project, titled, “A Novel Tool for Percutaneous Implantation of Pacing and Defibrillation Leads in Small Children and Infants”, will explore a novel tool and technique to place pacemakers and implantable defibrillators in infants and children who are too small to have leads placed in their veins.
“We hope that this approach to lead placement eliminates the need for surgery in this group of pediatric patients,” Kumthekar explains. “This research could have a transformative impact in changing the current clinical standard for pacemaker and ICD implantation in pediatric patients by converting an open surgical approach to a minimally invasive procedure.”
Congenital heart defects are America’s most common birth defect. Nearly 40,000 babies are born with a CHD each year in the United States. The Children’s Heart Foundation and the American Academy of Pediatrics have joined together to promote understanding of cardiovascular disease in children through this award, which represents a tremendous opportunity for junior faculty in pediatric cardiology to gain research experience.
“As more children born with CHDs survive to adulthood because of advancements made through research, the need for more physicians and scientists in the field of congenital heart disease continues to grow,” said Barbara Newhouse, CEO of The Children’s Heart Foundation. “The Children’s Heart Foundation is proud to grant this award each year to a pediatric cardiology fellow showing promise in advancing the treatment and care of all individuals living with a CHD.”
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About The Children’s Heart Foundation
The Children’s Heart Foundation is the country’s leading organization solely dedicated to funding congenital heart defect (CHD) research. The mission of The Children’s Heart Foundation is to fund the most promising research to advance the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of CHDs. Since 1996, The Children’s Heart Foundation has funded more than $11.1 million of CHD research. For more information, visit www.childrensheartfoundation.org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
About the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. For more information, visit www.aap.org and follow us on Twitter @AmerAcadPeds.
