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McGowan Institute faculty member Dr. Brad Keller

Dr. Brad Keller Touches Hearts in Tibet

McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Bradley Keller, MD, professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Graduate Faculty, Cell Biology and Molecular Physiology, University of Pittsburgh, is the director of a team of medical professionals from Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC who travel to and from China providing medical assistance to children with treatable and survivable heart conditions in developing countries where the appropriate medical facilities, expertise, or resources do not exist. The services are funded by the Variety Children’s Lifeline Foundation. Through the Foundation, Dr. Keller’s team works with families and patients sponsored by the organization, the South East Asia Prayer Center (SEAPC) Touching Hearts in Tibet.

Begun in 1999 and officially launched in 2000, Touching Hearts in Tibet has brought many needed medical procedures to numerous children who have serious heart conditions. During these medical missions, Dr. Keller and his team are eager to share their knowledge with their medical colleagues in the correspondent country. A rich resource of medical knowledge and equipment remains in the developing country, and the mission creates an integrated cross-cultural medical team. In addition to Dr. Keller’s team of professionals, cardiologists from Japan, Venezuela, and China, have cooperated in Touching Hearts.

Variety Children's Lifeline was founded in 1982 with its primary focus on pediatric cardiac surgeries; it also provides medical care in the areas of pediatric neurosurgeries, cranial-facial procedures, neo-natal clinics, general clinics, pediatric rehabilitative medicine, and plastic surgeries for children.

To date, Variety Children's Lifeline has completed over 500 surgical and clinical missions to over 55 countries, treating tens of thousands of children through its cost effective volunteer program. Lifeline's medical mission teams include volunteer cardiologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and intensivists, as well as other critical medical staff including perfusionists, respiratory therapists, and nurses. As the Lifeline mission teams travel to correspondent country public hospitals, their goal is the building a self-sustained local medical program.

Through Lifeline, each year over 1,000 children undergo life-saving cardiac surgery or non-invasive cardiac care; approximately 200 receive cranial facial surgeries; 75 receive neo-natal interventions; 250 receive nutritional care; and thousands receive pediatric clinical care. This accomplishment is a testament to the committed medical personnel who volunteer their services to the Lifeline program and to the generous donors who ensure that Variety Children's Lifeline will continue saving children's lives worldwide.

Dr. Keller is a physician-scientist with extensive experience in the design, execution, and analysis of cardiovascular research related to cardiovascular developmental physiology and biomechanics. He is actively involved in the expansion of clinical care delivery to patients of all ages with congenital heart diseases. Dr. Keller serves as principal investigator of novel technology to improve the success of prenatal cardiac interventions and related to the application of autologous tissue-engineering strategies to congenital cardiovascular surgery.

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