A team of pediatric cardiac specialists from the Gaslini Institute, Genoa, Italy - one of the world's leading and largest pediatric heart care hospitals in the world, will visit India from January 23 - February 02, 2003 to perform complex congenital pediatric cardiac surgeries and cardiac interventions and simultaneously share their knowledge and skills with their Indian counterparts at the Holy Family Heart Institute (HFHI), a unit of the Holy Family Hospital in Mumbai.

The cardiac surgeons who would be assisted by the Indian counterparts are expected to perform close to 15 surgeries on babies having complex anomalies of the heart. The process is an effort by the Holy Family Heart Institute to bring down the number of children born with some form of congenital heart diseases, while at the same time provide high-quality and affordable pediatric cardiac care to children.

According to Dr Brian Pinto, chief of cardiology and interventional cardiologist at HFHI, "The incidence of congenital heart disease in children is 8 per 1000, besides the incidence of rheumatic heart diseases is also very high in the country. With help from the foreign delegates we hope to propagate knowledge to all our doctors and educate them on the merits of the procedure. Further, we also plan to bring down the number of patients going abroad for such treatments, which at the moment is the general trend that is being followed."

As part of the 11-day programme and on occasion of Republic Day, the HFHI will host a panel discussion on the current scenario and future of pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery and cardiac intervention with the participation of eminent pediatric cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, pediatricians and physicians. Those attending the discussion will also get to participate in a live demo of pediatric cardiac surgery and cardiac intervention performed by the visiting faculty from Italy in association with the Indian Pediatric Cardiologists and surgeons from the HFHI.

The pediatric cardiac department of HFHI was set up on Children's Day, 14th November, last year and is the first such cardiac centre in the city to cater exclusively to children.