@article{a28df35df07c4cbabcba1b556627345c,
title = "The Evolution of Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology as a Subspecialty",
abstract = "Over the past 50 years, pediatric and congenital electrophysiology has progressed from a rare subspecialty practiced at just a handful of centers to become an essential part of nearly every congenital heart program the world over. This paper traces the evolution of the subspecialty in North America by recognizing the individuals who dedicated their careers to this field and trained subsequent generations of practitioners, thereby establishing a legacy that insures continued progress in the treatment of arrhythmias for children and patients with congenital heart disease. Data were generated from a survey of the current membership of the Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology Society and were supplemented by review of archived Society records. Maps depicting the locations for clinicians and training centers over time provide a graphic display of progress in this field.",
keywords = "Arrhythmias, Catheter ablation, Congenital heart disease, Electrophysiology, History, Pediatric",
author = "Walsh, {Edward P.} and Law, {Ian H.} and {Van Hare}, {George F.}",
note = "Funding Information: Pediatric and congenital EP experienced its most dramatic expansion with the introduction of radiofrequency energy for catheter ablation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A full-time EP staff member was suddenly a necessity rather than a luxury at large-volume pediatric cardiology centers. By this point nearly all training occurred at pediatric institutions. Membership in PACES increased rapidly, and thanks to the efforts of Macdonald Dick, the group was officially incorporated as a tax-exempt organization in 1991. The decade was marked by rapid advances in ablation techniques including successful strategies for mapping and eliminating complex arrhythmia substrates in patients with congenital heart defects []. The change in practice driven by this new technology inspired the pediatric electrophysiology community to establish the Pediatric Radiofrequency Ablation Registry led by John Kugler, which provided a real-world assessment of expected acute success rates and complication rates for this procedure in children [, ]. This was followed by an ambitious project focused on prospective assessment of ablation outcomes organized by George Van Hare and funded by the National Institutes of Health, which provided crucial data on long-term results []. Additionally, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator technology took a giant leap forward in the 1990s with the introduction of hardware for transvenous implantation. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.",
year = "2022",
month = apr,
doi = "10.1007/s00246-021-02785-w",
language = "English",
volume = "43",
pages = "776--783",
journal = "Pediatric Cardiology",
issn = "0172-0643",
number = "4",
}