Adult Congenital Heart Association Accredited
Recognized for supporting and advancing the standards of care for individuals with congenital heart disease.
Thanks to advances in medical, surgical and transcatheter interventions, the number of adults living with congenital heart disease in the United States (more than 1 million) is far greater than the number of children affected and is expected to continue to grow each year.
Find an adult congenital cardiologist
Our experienced doctors and specialists are ready to serve you, right in your own community.
Getting the right care
While the medical care and treatment for a congenital heart defect you received as an infant or child helped make things better, few defects are “cured.” As an adolescent or adult with congenital heart disease, you need specialized, lifelong follow-up care provided by a regional adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) center of excellence.
An ACHD center constitutes the medical “home” required to identify and/or address not only the impact of a congenital heart defect, but also late onset complications commonly encountered. As a result, this type of specialized ACHD care has been demonstrated to improve quality of life and outcomes for adult congenital heart patients.
Patients we see
We see a broad range of patients who were born with congenital heart conditions. This includes both repaired and unrepaired conditions, as well as arrhythmias associated with these conditions. We see patients with mild to complex congenital heart disease. It is important for these patients to be seen throughout life.
We see these patients during pregnancy, if they develop heart failure, if they need further intervention (transcatheter or surgical), with pulmonary hypertension, as well as psychological care. All of this care is available within the Corewell Health system, in collaboration with other specialties.
Conditions we treat
- Anomalous origin of coronary artery
- Anomalous pulmonary venous return
- Aortic stenosis (congenital)
- Aorto-left ventricular fistula
- Atrial septal defect (ASD)
- Atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) or AV canal
- Bicuspid aortic valve or other congenital aortic valve disease
- Coarctation of the aorta
- Complex single ventricle (including fontan circulation)
- Corrected transposition of the great arteries
- Double inlet ventricle
- Double outlet ventricle
- Ebstein’s anomaly
- Hypoplastic left heart syndrome
- Interrupted aortic arch
- Mitral atresia
- Mitral valve prolapse or other congenital mitral valve disease
- Other abnormalities of atrioventricular and ventriculoarterial connection
- Pulmonary atresia
- Pulmonary stenosis or regurgitation (congenital)
- Right ventricular outflow tract obstruction
- Sinus of valsalva fistula or aneurysm
- Tetralogy of fallot
- Transposition of the great arteries
- Tricuspid atresia
- Truncus arteriosus
- Ventricular septal defect (VSD)
- Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
- Loeys-Dietz syndrome
- Marfan syndrome
- Noonan syndrome
- Turner syndrome
- Williams syndrome
- Pregnancy and congenital heart disease (CHD)
- Heart failure and CHD
- Arrhythmia associated with CHD
- Transcatheter valve procedures related to CHD
- Psychological care of individuals with CHD
Transitioning from pediatric to adult care
We begin the process of preparing pediatric patients for the transition to adult care around age 12. Our approach to this transition features four milestone goals—helping patients understand their diagnosis and complexity of care, helping patients gain independence, making the move to adult care, and self-management. Our goal is to help patients understand and successfully manage their own care, including:
- Description of congenital defect and prior surgeries
- Medications and preventing infection (endocarditis)
- Healthy lifestyle and exercise prescription
- Genetics, contraception and pregnancy
- Education and career choices
- Insurance counseling and financial resources
- Support systems available
- Planning advance directives, power of attorney
Referrals
Patient self-referral
Patients may call our office during business hours to schedule a new patient appointment without a physician’s referral. If the matter is urgent, please go to the nearest adult emergency department and they can reach out to our on-call ACHD provider for consultation.
Provider referrals
The adult congenital heart disease clinic is located in the same office as pediatric cardiology. Referrals to our adult congenital heart disease program go through Helen DeVos Children ’s Hospital.
Referring providers may call us any time to speak to our on-call cardiologist. Call 616.267.9150 during business hours. For after hours consults, call HDVCH Direct at 616.391.3100. We are also available via PerfectServe, search for “adult congenital cardiology”.
We will do our best to triage and schedule new patient referrals in a timely manner to facilitate seamless care.
Provider referral
Information on referring to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital