Pediatric Heart Failure and Transplant: Developing Rehab Protocols to Enhance Outcomes 1927

Thursday, October 30, 2025

8:15 AM - 9:15 AM

Location: ROOM: Private Dining Room #6 >>> DIRECTIONS Third Floor >>> From the Main Elevator Bank, proceed right and then right again after the stairs. PDR #6 is located at the end of the corridor on the left.

Corresponding Presenter(s)

Shubhra Mukherjee, MD (she/her/hers)

Medical Director of Rehabilitation
Shriners Children's Chicago
Chicago, IL, United States

Slides Slides

Presenter(s)

DH

Darlene Huisenga, PT, DPT, PCS (she/her/hers)

Senior Physical Therapist
Advocate Children's Hospital
Oak Lawn, IL, United States
Alyssa Langevin, OTR/L, NTMC (she/her/hers)

Occupational Therapist
Advocate Children's Hospital
Oak Lawn, IL, United States
Abigail R. Case, MD (she/her/hers)

Assistant professor of pediatrics, attending physician
CHOP
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Pediatric heart transplant and VAD programs are growing across the country, doubling in rate in the past 20 years. Establishing new treatment paradigms within hospitals that are new to this area presents challenges. Appropriate and timely rehabilitation is key to optimizing outcomes and quality of life.
Together we will discuss how a new Chicago program (less than a year old) is building rehabilitation protocols to support the best outcomes for these surgical cardiac patients. We will also hear from a well developed cardiac rehab at CHOP. We will share tools to help move protocols forward, outcome measures, and discuss cases to demonstrate how challenges were met.

Learning Objectives:

Describe key components of a pediatric heart transplant rehab protocol
List key outcome measures that define success in a pediatric heart transplant/heart failure rehab program.
Describe components of communication tools between medical/surgical and rehab professionals (and families) in a heart program.
Discuss challenges and factors that impact integration of rehab goals in a pediatric heart transplant program