Christopher Petit, MD Joins Columbia as Division Chief
Christopher J. Petit, MD, internationally recognized for clinical innovation and excellence in interventional cardiology, has been appointed the Welton S. Gersony Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Cardiology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. “The pediatric cardiology program at Columbia has a long history of discovery, innovation, and education and we are pleased that Dr. Petit has joined our remarkable faculty as the new director,” said Jordan S. Orange, MD, PhD, the Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Dr. Petit’s expertise includes minimally invasive techniques to replace diseased heart valves, stent implants, and the insertion of transcatheter mitral valves to avoid open-heart surgery. His research focuses on assessing the short and long-term outcomes of children with complex congenital heart disease, developing new techniques for catheter-based cardiac interventions, and predictors of survival for children with single ventricle heart disease. At Columbia Dr. Petit plans to advance the ambulatory program into the local community, enhance subspecialty cardiology programs, and augment research by increasing the division’s grant-funded academic portfolio.
“As we move forward in treating infants, children, and adults with congenital heart disease, I think we will soon have a much better understanding of why these defects develop and a much better way to treat them. I fully expect that we will be using patients’ own tissues to derive their replacement heart valves, for example,” says Dr. Petit. “And the team here at Columbia is really pushing the field forward to the point where these kinds of innovations will be possible. This team is always creating and looking for solutions, so
Dr. Petit helped create and currently serves as president of the Congenital Cardiac Research Collaborative, a group of researchers from large congenital heart programs across the country.
He has received the Young Leadership Award from the International Pediatric and Adult Interventional Cardiac Symposiand is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American Academy of Pediatrics, and Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.
Dr. Petit received both his undergraduate and medical school degrees from Vanderbilt University. He completed his pediatrics residency at Lurie Children’s Hospital, Chicago and cardiology fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Before joining Columbia, he was on the faculty at Texas Children’s Hospital and Emory, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
