Cardiac morphology is fundamental to all health professionals who care for patients with congenital heart disease.

The unit headed by Prof. Yen Ho has three major roles: research, education and service, all with strong links with clinical colleagues in paediatrics, pathology, cardiology, surgery, anaesthesiology and intensive care.

Notable achievements

• The unit has made important research contributions to clarifying the anatomy of complex heart defects in children. It has guided doctors to improve diagnosis on cardiac imaging and surgeons and interventional cardiologists to improve techniques for repairing “holes in the heart”.

• Another research area that the unit has made significant impact is in the study of tissues that are responsible for heart rhythm. The unit is one of the few centres in the world that has the expertise to examine the system of tissues that co-ordinate rhythmic activity in the heart.  Identifying the locations of the conduction system in many malformed hearts has helped surgeons and interventionists to avoid damage to these tissues when they perform operations to repair the heart defects.

• The unit’s thrust in postgraduate education with emphasis on aspects of cardiac morphology relevant to clinical settings contributes to lowering the risk of complications in interventional procedures e.g. in electrophysiology, surgery, and transcatheter interventions.