Our History

The Pediatric Arrhythmia Center at UCSF and Stanford was established in June, 1998. At that time, the clinical operations of the UCSF Medical Center, Mt. Zion Medical Center, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, and Stanford University Hospital, were merged under the banner of UCSF Stanford Health Care. Clinical integration of pediatric arrhythmia services between UCSF and Stanford was seen as a natural opportunity as part of the merger. Despite the dissolution of UCSF Stanford Health Care in 1999, we have maintained a fully integrated clinical program on both campuses.

Clinical integration of the pediatric arrhythmia program between UCSF and Stanford offers some important advantages. It allows us to maintain a "critical mass" of clinical faculty and support personnel. We have access to the substantial academic resources of not one, but two, "top ten" medical schools, namely UCSF School of Medicine and the Stanford University School of Medicine. Finally, and most importantly, the combined program allows us to maintain a high clinical volume. For the academic year 2000-2001, we performed 258 invasive procedures in children, including 160 intracardiac radiofrequency ablations. It is well known that, in general, procedure outcomes are best at centers which perform a large number of those procedures. Our clinical volume makes us one of the largest pediatric arrhythmia programs in North America, and our experience allows us to achieve excellent results in children.