2024 UGMC PAEDIATRIC CARDIAC COLLABORATIVE PROJECT with HEARTS and MINDS of GHANA/BOSTON CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Partnership Projects of Children’s Lifeline™

The Hearts and Minds of Ghana (HMOG) team visited the National Cardiothoracic Centre (NCTC) of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (NCTC) for 2 visits in 2024: May 13-17 and Sept 23-27. Children’s Lifeline International sponsored both visits. While HMOG has been caring for children with CHD in Ghana since 2008, the visits to NCTC in 2024 by Hearts and Minds of Ghana began a new collaboration to support the growth and development of pediatric cardiac services at NCTC. This collaboration offers a unique opportunity to open a new and exciting chapter for the pediatric cardiac program at NCTC and its future, as well as that of pediatric cardiac care overall in Ghana and beyond.

Hearts and Minds of Ghana (HMOG) sponsored medical volunteer teams from Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) team was composed of Francis Fynn-Thompson, Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon; Kshitij Mystri, Pediatric Cardiac Intensivist; Serwaa Karikari, Pediatric Cardiac Intensivist; Avinash Shukla, Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiologist; Sarah Gadille, Pediatric Perfusion; Christine Placidi, Beverly Small and Suzanne Colonna, CICU Nurses; and Leslie Smoot, Pediatric Cardiologist, Kevin Friedman, Pediatric cardiologist.

The aims of this report are: (1) to provide a summary of the clinical work during the training visits, (2) to provide important information to strengthen and expand the current level and quality of pediatric cardiac services available, (3) to serve as a basis for future collaboration and cooperation in implementing changes and improvements to NCTC’s pediatric cardiac program and (4) to provide a benchmark for measuring progress as the program strives to improve the quality and availability of cardiac care for children.

Before moving into the summary and observations portion of the report, we would like to express our deepest appreciation and gratitude to Children’s Lifeline for their continued generous support of the HMOG team and our work in Ghana to continue to build on the goal of increasing sustainable capacity for the care of children with congenital heart disease.

We would also like to acknowledge the NCTC team for organizing a productive and successful program for each training visit. We were pleased and impressed to see how well the two teams interacted and worked together over both weeks, which speaks to the strength of the partnership and relationships built since HMOG started working with the team at NCTC.

Before each visit, the clinical teams from HMOG and NCTC organized monthly virtual meetings over Zoom, where details of the visits, patient selection, and review were undertaken. This facilitated a very focused and organized week. Following the visits, it is very clear how dedicated, enthusiastic, and committed the entire NCTC team is to improving the quality of care provided to CHD patients, building a multidisciplinary pediatric team and a pediatric program capable of serving the comprehensive needs of CHD patients throughout Ghana with optimal outcomes.

With the 2 visits to NCTC in 2024, we carefully reviewed and identified different areas of the clinical program at NCTC to highlight as areas for potential development and prioritization in 2025.

Developing and Sustaining Clinical Capacity

• Perfusion
• Anesthesia
• Critical Care

Organizational Capacity and Process Improvement

• Multidisciplinary Communication
• Human Resources
• Program Development
• Infrastructure
• Leadership
• Supplies & Equipment
• Process Improvement/Quality metrics

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Conclusion

We are honored to be a part of NCTC’s pediatric cardiac program’s development and evolution. We look forward to building on the program’s solid foundation and vision for the future and moving it toward providing more advanced and specialized care with optimal outcomes for children born with CHD in Ghana. Due to these 2 training visits by HMOG in 2024, the National Cardiothoracic Center in Accra is on pace to do over 100 pediatric cardiac surgical cases in 2024, a record number for the center over its 30-year history.

Francis Fynn-Thompson, MD
Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Department of Cardiac Surgery
Boston Children’s Hospital