Boston's Children Hospital

[Bert]

Just had an interesting conversation with someone who works very closely with the cardiology community. He works for a medical technology company to be exact, and he mentioned to me that in many instances he sees a totally different picture about the field that we're not privied to. He also mentioned that often times in medicine you have 2 types of specialists. The ones who are more academic side and just want to publish and get their name out there, versus the ones who have their primary focus be the patients and nothing else.

In any event, he's the brother of someone I work with on our campus and he no invested interest in distorting the truth. He did highly recommend Dr. Lock at Boston Children's Hospital especially if you're dealing with adolescents and kids. I was wondering if any of you had ever heard his name and if you had any thoughts.

[Sarah]

oh yes

Dear Bert,

This is something the HCMA is very aware of and when people ask us for referrals, we point them in the right direction.

For example, we DO NOT recommend the National Institute of Health (NIH) HCM clinic for that very reason: they are research-focused, not patient-focused.

There are research studies going on that we may make HCMers aware of, but we are very, very, very up front about the differences between research and treatment.

This is also why we don't just post names of doctors on the site. We don't recommend anyone without knowing them, their perspective, philosophy, and their expertise, education, etc, etc. We want to talk to you and find out what you need, what style you work well with and make recommendations of specific patient-focused doctors and centers.

Personally, I don't know much about the pediatric doctors. WHen Lisa gets back from vacation, I'm sure she'll let you know if she knows that doctor.

Thanks for bringing this up --it very important to know about your doctor and their goals.

S

[Dee]

Dr. Lock

I've heard of Dr. Lock through parents of children with CHD's other than HCM. If I remember right I believe he specializes in interventional caths?? At any rate, he's VERY highly regarded by these parents.