UK HealthCast: Dr. Carl Backer on the success of the Joint Pediatric Heart Care Program

UK HealthCast is a podcast featuring interviews with UK HealthCare experts on a variety of health-related topics, from how to recognize stroke symptoms to what patients need to know about clinical trials and more.

This week’s UK HealthCast features Dr. Carl Backer, division chief of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at UK Kentucky Children’s Hospital and director of the Kentucky Children’s Hospital section of the Joint Pediatric Heart Care Program, a collaboration with Cincinnati Children’s that combines the strength of UK HealthCare’s advanced pediatric heartcare with that of our Cincinnati counterpart.

Dr. Backer explains how our Joint Pediatric Heart Program provides the best possible care to Kentucky’s kids – closer to home:

“One of the primary drivers of the US News and World Report [14thin the nation] ranking is the outcomes – and the outcomes are reported through a national database that’s run by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. The outcomes of our joint program have been excellent,” Dr. Backer said.

“Part of the success is that we start with a careful evaluation of each patient by a very dedicated and motivated group of surgeons and cardiologists, so we do the right operation at the right time for the right patient. At both Cincinnati and at Kentucky Children’s Hospital, we have great teams taking care of the patients.”

Listen to the full podcast with Dr. Backer below.