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Care of the adult with congenital heart disease (ACHD'ers) was a central concern for congenital heart disease caregivers, including Doctors Nadas, Fyler, Van Praagh, Gross, and Castenada, from the inception of the clinical pediatric services at the Children's Hospital Boston. Some of these caregivers, like Dr. Keane, were both adult and pediatric trained cardiovascular specialists. Others, like Dr. Masland, recognized and organized some of the nation's first "transition" of care services to aid in the process of "graduating" from pediatric to adult care. All of these medical leaders knew that a strong working relationship between pediatric and adult medical services was a requirement for the continuous and multi-disciplinary care of the ACHD'ers.
In the 1970's, Dr. Laurence Sloss brought together the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Children's Hospital Boston to begin the country's first adult congenital heart center. In the mid-to-late 1980's, under the guidance of Doctors James Lock and Aldo Castenada, this program had grown into an established, multi-disciplinary, multi-centered care for the ACHD'ers. Together with Doctors Eugene Braunwald (Chief of Internal Medicine, BWH), Lawrence Cohn (Chief of Cardiac Surgery, BWH), Thomas Smith (Chief of Cardiology, BWH), and Bernardo Nadal-Ginard (Chief of Cardiology, CHB), the "Boston Adult Congenital Heart (BACH) and Pulmonary Hypertension (PHT)" Service was inaugurated in 1990, formally opening its doors to patients and families in 1992.
Today, the BACH and PHT service assist in the care and education of thousands of ACHD'ers who travel here from surrounding areas and beyond. The services offered range from outpatient to inpatient to intensive care, and include routine or advanced imaging, cardiac and non-cardiac surgeries, cardiac anesthesia guidance, catheter-based diagnostics and interventions, electrophysiologic diagnostics and interventions, heart failure management and transplantation evaluation, vascular medicine diagnostics and therapies, pulmonary hypertension diagnostics and therapies, support for young patients transitioning from pediatric and adult care, contraception and family planning, women's health support, family and patient support and guidance, career and financial guidance, and many more. We welcome you to BACH.
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