Edward John Hickey, MD

My goal is for all children born with congenital heart disease to enjoy healthy and active lives, far beyond their childhood years. Although I operate on the full age and diagnostic spectrum, a particular focus of mine is to expand and develop our Adult Congenital Heart Program practice. Adults have historically suffered greatly limited access to congenital heart disease expertise; a disparity that we are striving to correct at Texas Children’s Hospital.

I am excited to partner with Dr Peter Ermis, Medical Director of Adult Congenital Heart Disease, to lead the expansion of Texas Children’s Hospital Adult Congenital Heart Program. In November 2020 we will be opening the Legacy Tower 24th floor: a 27,000 ft2 dedicated Adult Congenital Heart Program center, complete with 16 intensive care beds, diagnostics unit and rehabilitation/gym facility. This will be the most advanced Adult Congenital Heart Program in the southern US and the highest concentration of specialist ACH expertise in the region. For congenital heart disease, Texas Children’s Hospital is your home for life. All ages. All diagnoses. All complexity.

I previously oversaw the largest Canadian ACH surgical program (Toronto 2012 -2019) including establishing the busiest ACH transplant practice in Canada.

Clinical Interests:

· Neonatal, infant and pediatric congenital heart surgery

· Surgery for Adult congenital heart disease

· Heart transplantation and mechanical support

· Extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)

· Adult congenital heart transplantation and advanced therapies

Research Interests:

· Parametric non-linear time-related outcomes analyses

· Natural history studies and prediction modelling using large congenital heart disease research datasets

· Threat and error modelling and understanding error propagation

· “Flight plan” clinical review for quality improvement

I was the 2006 – 2008 Kirklin-Ashburn fellow with the Congenital Heart Surgeons’ Society and thereby became trained in the art and science of non-linear modelling under the tutelage of Dr Eugene Blackstone. These techniques have provided the foundation for the clinical outcomes analyses that have formed the bulk of my research activity.

In recent years, I introduced the concept of “flight plan” review of patient journeys and translated threat and error modelling from the aviation industry to congenital heart surgery. This has proved to be an effective risk-containment and quality improvement tool that has subsequently been implemented in many other centers.