Our partner and Center of Excellence in India, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, released a unique resource for medical professionals who care for children in pediatric cardiac intensive care units (PCICU) in low- and middle-income countries. A Practical Manual of Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care covers key aspects of care of children with heart disease and can be used as a reference source by on-call doctors and nurses.
“The purpose of this book is to serve as a ready reference source for junior doctors and critical care nurses engaged in the care of children with heart disease who undergo heart surgery. Its key chapters are specially written for the low-resource environments such as transport of sick children with heart disease to dedicated treatment centers, prevention of health care associated infections, and establishment of dedicated pediatric cardiac intensive care units. We hope it will be useful for caregivers working in similar settings of pediatric cardiac intensive care,” says Dr. Rakhi Balachandran, intensivist and one of the authors of the PCICU manual.
“The manual is unique because it distills our two decades of experience in caring for children with heart disease in the intensive care unit,” says Dr. Krishna Kumar, pediatric cardiologist and co-author of the book. “It is comprehensive and covers key general aspects of pediatric cardiac intensive care as well as protocols for the postoperative management of individual heart defects.”
Over the last two decades, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences built a strong pediatric cardiology training program that grew into one of the most advanced pediatric cardiac centers in the country today. The long-term partnership with Children’s HeartLink that included multiple onsite and offsite training visits of our medical volunteers contributed to these advancements in quality and standards of care.
The PCICU manual was presented during one of the Children’s HeartLink and Centers of Excellence virtual webinars.
Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences is an active regional trainer in pediatric cardiology, intensive care and cardiothoracic surgery. Its trainees from India, Asia and Africa improve the quality of care in their own countries or even establish new pediatric cardiac programs. With borders closed, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences had to pause its in-house training programs and switch to online training, in collaboration with our Center of Excellence in Malaysia, Institut Jantung Negara.
Read our blog about our Center of Excellence Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and its training programs here
Children’s HeartLink saves children’s lives by transforming pediatric heart care in underserved parts of the world. Founded in 1969, we currently support 18 partner hospitals in Brazil, China, India, Malaysia and Vietnam. Even in this challenging time, our medical volunteers trained over 4,300 professionals and helped more than 122,000 children worldwide.