As the scope and intensity of Pediatric Cardiology has expanded over the past 50 years our work has given us many times of triumph, and many of disappointment as we witnessed the long term course of our patients. In Public Health Perspectives we seek to encompass the wide range of considerations which could go beyond the cardiology therapies to create a fully optimistic outlook.

In my own practice of Pediatric Cardiology (1949-1973) I witnessed the dramatic impact of surgical advances in the relief of disabilities and distress in children and young adults with severe cardiovascular malformations. Since those early days of the specialty all surgical efforts were directed toward the establishment of a normal circulation.

It was not long before it became obvious that many of the advantages gained may sometimes be lost again through preventable circumstances. Additionally new knowledge indicated discreet causes of some abnormalities on which preventive intervention may be possible and the search for causes expanded widely. I became the principal investigator of a large, collaborative study, the Baltimore-Washington Infant Study, which provided systematically collected new information on infants born with congenital heart disease (1981-1989) in our region.

As prevention of disease is increasingly emphasized on the national and international scene, an overview of public health perspectives has become timely. It is hoped that the material provided in this web site will further broaden the horizons on the public health potential which could be realized by the efforts of patients and their families as well as their health care providers.

Charlotte Ferencz, M.D. C.M.( McGill), M.P.H. (Johns Hopkins)
Professor Emeritus, Departments of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, and of Pediatrics
University of Maryland School of Medicine