Latest news

HTX seminar as part of the AG meeting

We are pleased to announce a special seminar - the Children's Heart Center Vienna is organizing a seminar on 24.4.2025 at 13:30 as part of the spring conference of the Working Group for Pediatric Cardiology in Vienna on one of our major focal points - heart transplantation in children. The seminar is aimed at all pediatricians who care for children with heart transplants both in hospital and in private practice, from tertiary centers to pediatric practices! The venue is the MedUni Vienna campus - lecture hall 1B (Borschkegasse 4 - 1090 Vienna). We are looking forward to an exciting event - please register via email to sophie.gumpelmair@meduniwien.ac.at!

Further information can be found HERE.

Generous donation

Almost six years ago, Mrs. Strobl came to the Children's Heart Center Vienna with her newborn baby girl in an acutely endangered condition. A severe congenital heart defect was found to be the cause and the child was first quickly stabilized by a cardiac catheter intervention and then successfully operated on by our paediatric cardiac surgeons! Since then, the little patient has been doing excellently and gives us great pleasure at every outpatient check-up!

Mrs. Strobl has now collected money on the occasion of her 40th birthday and presented our director Prof. Ina Michel-Behnke with a generous donation for our heart children! On behalf of all our patients, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks!

Assoc. Prof. PD Dr. Andreas Hanslik appointed 2nd Deputy Head of the Department of Pediatric Cardiology.

Prof. Hanslik has worked in the department for many years, specializing in the clinical and academic fields of paediatric heart failure and echocardiography. He is also the senior physician responsible for training, both as a mentor and in the design of the pediatric cardiology curriculum. He is also involved in the training of nursing staff and students.

We are delighted about his appointment as 2nd Deputy Head of Department, which he will perform alongside the proven role of Dr. Kitzmüller as 1st Deputy Head.

7th HEART TEAM WINTER SUMMIT

It's March - and this is already the 7th “Heart Team Winter Summit” month! The now traditional event organized by the Medical University of Vienna and the Medical University of Graz is once again taking place in Zürs am Arlberg this year.

Prof. Günther Laufer, Prof. Daniel Zimpfer, Prof. Martin Andreas und Univ Prof Dr Andreas Zirlik are responsible for the adult cardiac surgery program, while Prof. Ina Michel-Behnke und Prof. Daniel Zimpfer - head of the Vienna Children's Heart Center - are responsible for the pediatric program - this year's pediatric program will include the truncus arteriosus communis and the pulmonary vein malformation.

You will hind all the Details for the program here: https://lnkd.in/dxTT54f5.

We are looking forward to exciting discussions, good exchanges with participants from Germany and abroad and, last but not least, the sight of the snow-covered peaks!

11. Juniortraining - October 18th - 19th 2024

Dear colleagues,
The 11th Juniortrining for interventions in congenital heart defects is taking place again this year. The congress program offers basic material science and radiation protection in the context of cardiac catheter examinations, with a focus on interventions in vitia. It includes lectures, interactive case studies and hands-on training on models and in simulation suites. Participants will have the opportunity to gain practical experience under the guidance of leading experts from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The course is aimed at young doctors in further training in pediatric cardiology to make it easier for them to get started in invasive diagnostics and therapy. 

We look forward to your participation!

You can find the registration form for the course HERE. 

You can find more information HERE.

Excellence in interventional cardiology - The Gerd Hausdorf Lectureship Award for Prof. Dr. Ina Michel-Behnke

We are pleased to announce the awarding of the Prize for Excellence in Interventional Cardiology. This prestigious award recognizes outstanding achievements and innovations in the treatment of heart disease in children. It is awarded by the Interventional Cardiology Working Group of the Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology (AEPC).
This year, the award went to Prof. Dr. Ina Michel-Behnke for her pioneering contributions to interventional therapy for congenital heart defects. Her work has made a significant contribution to improving the quality of life and prognosis of young patients.
The award ceremony took place on May 10, 2024 during the AEPC International Congress of Pediatric Cardiology in Porto.
Prof. Dr. Ina Michel-Behnke gave the “Gerd Hausdorf Memorial Lecture” as part of the award ceremony in which she presented her research results.
We warmly congratulate Prof. Michel-Behnke on this well-deserved recognition and look forward to her future achievements in her cardiology focus area at the Children's Heart Center Vienna.

New to the team

The team at the Children's Heart Center Vienna warmly welcomes: Dr. Peter Murin, new
Head of the Pediatric Heart Surgery Section at MedUni Vienna/Vienna General Hospital.
Prof. Dr. Daniel Zimpfer, himself head of the pediatric cardiac surgery program for many years
program and now Head of the Department of Cardiac Surgery, has brought his
to Vienna and put him in charge of the cardiac surgery program for children with congenital heart disease.
care of children with congenital heart defects.

Dr. Peter Murin is internationally recognized as an expert in the field of
pediatric heart surgery:

• Studied human medicine in Bratislava (Slovakia) and Göttingen (Germany)
• Specialist training at Oldenburg Hospital and then as a senior physician at the German Children's Heart Center in Sankt Augustin from 2008
• From 2014 senior physician at the Clinic for Surgery of Congenital Heart Defects at the German Heart Center of the Charité (DHZC) in Berlin
• Head of research and teaching at the DHZB, later DHZC in Berlin
• Author of numerous groundbreaking publications and AWMF guidelines
• Active member of the 'Congenital Domain' of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS)
• Member of the guideline commission of the German Society for Pediatric Cardiology (DGPK)
•  Associate Domain Editor of the Multimedia Manual of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (MMCTS).

Prof. Dr. Daniel Zimpfer is appointed Head of the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the
AKH/MedUni Vienna, will continue to operate on children and adults with vitia.
Together with Dr. Peter Murin, the Vienna Children's Heart Center now has two
top surgeons for the “supreme discipline” of heart surgery - the surgery of congenital heart
heart defects.

Dr Julian Heno receives this year's poster award of the AEPC Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation Working Group

The Pediatric Heart Transplantation research group at our Children's Heart Center was awarded a poster prize by the Working Group on Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation at this year's meeting of the European Association of Pediatric Cardiology (AEPC) in Porto. The research work deals with the potential use of the torque teno virus, which is detectable in almost all people and has no disease value. In future, the viral load could serve as a helpful marker for controlling immunosuppressive medication.

The link to the AEPC report can be found HERE.

Dear colleagues,
Once again, our one-day symposium will offer a structured and practice-oriented update on many relevant topics in fetal cardiology.
The speakers will be nationally and internationally renowned experts in the field of fetal cardiology and pediatric cardiology.

We look forward to your participation!

Organization

Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, MedUni Vienna/Vienna General Hospital

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Obstetrics and Feto-Maternal Medicine, MedUni Vienna/Vienna General Hospital

Further information and the program can be found HERE. 

You can find the registration form HERE.

An event organized by the Children's Heart Center together with the Division of Obstetrics and Feto-Maternal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, MedUni Vienna/Vienna General Hospital

She is a specialist in pediatrics with an additional diploma in pediatric cardiology.
Her other clinical and scientific specializations are coagulation disorders in children.

In the special outpatient clinic for haemostaseology and coagulation disorders, she looks after children with blood coagulation disorders, haemophilia and thrombosis on a supra-regional basis and is a competent contact person for the entire hospital as a consultant.
In particular, she specializes in rare haemostaseological diseases or other serious underlying diseases with coagulation disorders, as well as children with heart disease.

The academic career of Privatdozentin Dr. Katharina Thom was crowned in May 2024 with the award of the Venia docendi. Her publications summarize the numerous clinical studies she has conducted. She has also acquired specialist knowledge
acquired during a stay abroad in Toronto. Dr. Katharina Thom will continue to work intensively on this topic, both scientifically and clinically, in order to further improve the therapeutic options and quality of life for children with hemostasis disorders due to heart disease or other serious underlying diseases.

The entire team at the Children's Heart Center would like to congratulate Dr. Katharina Thom on her habilitation.